In July 2024, the Danube Networkers Partner Meeting will be held in Ulm as part of the 13th Danube Festival, featuring participants from all Danube countries.
Call for Participation: Competition „Traces of Europe in my Town“
Deadline extended: April 28, 2024!!!
Join the excitement and showcase the unique charms of your town in the “Traces of Europe in My Town” competition! We are inviting you to participate and share the traces of European culture that can be found in your hometown. Whether it’s the architecture, art, or cuisine, we want to see how your town embodies the richness of European heritage. Don’t miss this chance to celebrate your town and win amazing prizes. Join now and be a part of this exciting competition!
We welcome your participation in our international competition either as an individual or a group. You can contribute text, video, or photo content, which will be showcased in an exhibition during the Danube festival in Ulm/Neu Ulm. The winners will be selected by a jury and they will have the opportunity to present their contributions at the exhibition in person, along with receiving smaller monetary prizes. We eagerly await your contributions!
The exhibition will be held from July 11 to 13, 2024, during the partner meeting of Danube-Networkers. This event will be part of the Danube Festival Ulm/Neu-Ulm 2024. You can access the results on our websites or YouTube and share them with your friends and family around the world.
Please note that the deadline for submission is April 28, 2024!
More information about the competition and the rules HERE!
ViMA Danube – now also available in Croatian and Polish
We are thrilled to announce that ViMA Danube is now available in Croatian and Polish! This means that our users from these countries can now enjoy the benefits of ViMA Danube in their native language.
The international multifunctional online platform ViMA Danube (participate actively in digital ways) is now available in 14 languages: English, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Spanish, French, Slovenian, Italian, Slovakian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Polish.
ViMA aims to be a virtual gathering platform for people residing along the Danube river and other parts of Europe. We welcome individuals of all ages and nationalities to join ViMA and share their interests with others. You can create posts on your favorite European destinations or participate in the “Traces of Europe in my Town” competition.
ViMA is a joint project of ILEU e.V. and the “Digitale Agenda” of the city of Ulm with the support of the Ministry of State Baden-Württemberg.
Visit the platform: https://vima-danube.eu/mitmachen
Save the Date! 11th Danube Participation Day – 19 June 2024
Please save the date and join us at the 11th Danube Participation Day on 19 June 2024, in Vienna, Austria!
https://danubestrategy.eu/events/11th-danube-participation-day
83. Come Together Session – “Two years of war, but never alone!”
On February 25th, 2024, something really special happened. It was the day of the 83rd Online Come-Together event, and it was all about Ukraine and its people. The session was a wonderful display of solidarity and support for Ukrainians everywhere. And get this—70 people participated in the event under the motto “Two years of war, but never alone!”
It was truly an inspiring moment that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
Watch the session HERE!
Partner meeting of the Ulm Danube-Networkers in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
16 – 19 November, 2023
After a long wait, due to the pandemic and the high workload, the time had finally come: in the period from 16.11.-19.11.2023, the 5-member ILEU team, led by Carmen Stadelhofer, was welcomed in Cluj-Napoca, at Centrul de Zi pentru Varstnici Nr. 1 (Day Centre for Seniors No. 1).
The team presented the project ViMA Danube (https://vima-danube.eu/mitmachen) to the centre’s senior citizens and to a group of students from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Babes-Bolyai University (UBB). The senior citizens of the senior centre provided the German delegation with a wonderful music program by “Lyra” String Quartet from the Cluj Philharmonic. Mihaela Marcovici, the coordinator of the Day Centre Nr. 1 organised a day trip to the Salt mine Turda and to the Lupșa Monastery. At the salt mine, the Senior Harmony assembly performed a wonderful concert for the Ileu Team and the visitors. It was a great meeting and get-together but the three available days seemed far too short for the visit.
International ViMA volunteer meeting in Ulm
From 30.06.2023-02.07.2023, the VIMA volunteers came together for a working meeting in Ulm to discuss the further development of vima-danube.eu. After arriving and a brief welcome, work began in small groups, brainstorming on content, members, public relations, and technical issues. Various workshops characterized Saturday. Immediately after we met with an IT expert on our ViMA Danube platform, we continued with a seminar on social media by Holger Tietz (arborsys GmbH, Neu-Ulm). After lunch, we visited the botanical garden in Ulm. We received an introduction to the iNaturalist app from Stefan Brändel, which we could try out in the botanical garden. On our last meeting day, we worked on the Canva website, defined our goals for the coming weeks, and assigned tasks. We can look back with satisfaction on a productive meeting in Ulm and look forward to implementing our ideas and plans.
If you would like to join the ViMA Volunteers, please get in touch with vima@ileu.net.
ViMA Danube – New languages available
The online platform ViMA Danube is now available in 12 languages: English, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Spanish, French, Slovenian, Italian, Slovakian, and Hungarian.
Visit the platform: https://vima-danube.eu/mitmachen
October 2023 at ViMA-danube: “Discovering & appreciating wild herbs together”
Nature holds many different treasures that we often don’t even realize are there – even though many of them have become an integral part of our everyday lives. This also includes the many herbs that grow wild in nature and accompany us in various ways in our everyday lives. We are looking for people who:
– love nature
– are interested in botany, cooking, literature, natural medicine, art and photography
– want to share knowledge with others and discover new things
In the project “Discovering and appreciating wild herbs together”, we would like to explore the diversity of wild herbs locally with many nature lovers in the Danube countries and in other European countries and show how they are used and what significance they have in the respective countries. We want to research with you, exchange information, compare and learn lots of new things!
More on https://vima-danube.eu/interessengruppen/648c288384da220456ced522
Photo competition “Show us the ‘green’ in your city”
As part of the ViMA danube project and the U(l)mweltwoche in Ulm, which took place from 16.6.-24.6.23, ILEU e.V. invited participants to take part in the international photo competition “Show us the ‘green’ in your city”.
Over 60 participants from 11 countries took part in the international photo competition “Show me the green in your city” and sent in 4 photos each with interesting motifs and comments!
The results were presented during the Digital Day on 16.6.23 and published on the danect.eu website. The winning pictures were also shown in a small exhibition as part of the Environment Week Ulm.
See the winners here: https://danect.eu/winners-photo-competition-show-us-the-green-in-your-city/
Living Intangible Culture – In-Cult project Erasmus +
Over the past two years partners from six different European countries (Ileu e.V. Germany; University of Ruse Bulgaria; UPUA Spain; ZAPROKUL Serbia; FEDERUNI Italy; Writers’ League, Timisoara Romania) worked together on the In-Cult project. This project was funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.
The project “Living Intangible Culture” (In-Cult) seeks to build bridges between adult education organizations and learners from (South-) east and (South-) west of Europe through the uniting power of the shared European intangible cultural heritage. The online In-Cult game, which was developed in the project, allows you to test your knowledge about the cultural treasures of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Germany, Spain and Italy and gain new knowledge about the participating partner countries and their cultural heritage.
The game invites educators from a wide range of educational sectors, such as adult education, but also school education, to integrate the game into their own teaching, with the support of the materials provided on the website. Interested people of all ages can engage with the game individually or together in groups to learn about the intangible cultural assets of the participating countries presented in the game.
Get an insight into the project result and test the game yourself!
Visit in-cult-game.eu
Show us the ‘green’ in your city- Call for an international photo competition
In the frame of the project ViMA Danube and the U(l)mweltwochen (Green Week) in Ulm, which will take place in the period 16.6.23 – 24.6.23, we invite you to participate in our photo competition, “Show us the ‘green’ in your city.” Protecting our environment and nature and finding sustainable living methods is becoming increasingly important. Nature is essential for our future, health, and general well-being. In cities, the challenge to maintain touch with nature is even more significant. Stone and concrete increasingly dominate cities. But this does not exclude the presence of plants; nevertheless, Green in cities has many faces. We want to raise awareness on this issue by calling on you to show the green in your cities and encourage you to think about how we can make our cities greener in Europe and along the Danube. This is why we want to know your city’s green places! Take part and present the green spots in your city or community.
Deadline: Sunday, 11th June 2023!
More on: https://vima-danube.eu/neuigkeiten/644b9844f9779c3f45a96f56
Last In-Cult Partner Meeting
08 – 10 December, 2022
In December 2022 the partners from the In-Cult project met in Timisoara, Romania, for a final partner meeting, to discuss last tasks of the project. The purpose of the meeting was to come together again at the end of the project, to discuss & revise points and to evaluate the entire project period and to share important information on the conclusion of the project with the partners. The meeting showed that the two years of working together were successful despite the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic.
Have a look at the results here: in-cult-game.eu
”Lived Solidarity for Ukraine ”: Online Come-Together Session on 26.2.23
The 24th of February 2022 affects all Danube-Networkers very much; it is one year after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which unfortunately continues. During this year, there was a lot of suffering but also a lot of solidarity.
During our international ”Lived Solidarity”: Come-Together Session on Sunday, 26th of February 2023 (18:30, German time), in collaboration with partners of the education network Danube-Networkers and the Association DANET e.V. we remembered the war in Ukraine, what it means for the people and how refugees were supported through solidarity projects.
Over 100 participants, refugees, helpers, and organizations learned how they experienced the last year. They shared their short examples of support projects in different countries. Different cultural/musical contributions framed the program.
Digital and analog – it’s all in the mix!
At ILEU Ukrainehilfe, all information is provided on the Vima-Ulm website and through digital tools in Ukrainian and German so that language is not a barrier. Innovative software such as Whatsapp, Zoom, digital calendar, survey software, etc., are used for advertising, registering, implementing, and evaluating activities, retrieving skills, and forming topic-related analog and digital learning groups.
In the Verschwörhaus of the city of Ulm, “komm. treff! Ulm-Ukraine”, a communication and internet base for digital first aid for Ukrainian refugees, also organizes workshops, training courses, and more (e.g., technical Zoom moderation with translation channels).