Ana Zlibut, Writers League, Timisoara, Romania
An International project to foster intercultural communication between the Danube Countries
The ODDA Project has taken place from February 2017 until February 2018 and it was coordinated by the Institute for Virtual and Face-to-face Learning in Adult Education at Ulm University (ILEU e.V.), president Carmen Stadelhofer. Five regional teams in the frame of the international educational network Danube Networkers from Bulgaria-University of Ruse ”Angel Kanchev”, Center for Life Long Learning, Croatia -The Public Open University Zagreb (POUZ) University of the Third Age, Germany– DANET e.V. c/o ILEU e.V., Romania -The Association “The Writers League” Timisoara Banat Branch and Serbia– Youth Club of Backa Palanka worked together in the project and contributed to fostering the intercultural communication in Europe and in the Danube area in particular.
The objectives of the project were: to foster intercultural communication in Europe, to strengthen awareness of cultural diversity, to enable communication through low-threshold materials and to overcome language barriers.
The first partner meeting of the ODDA project took place at Bad Urach, in 24-28 July 2017. In cooperation with Center for General Scientific Continuing Education (ZAWiW), Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET e.V.), State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg, ILEU e.V. invited not only the participants from the ODDA project but also other interested representatives and multiplicators from civic society organizations from the Danube region to the qualification training “Creating bridges for Europe”.
During the seminary a lot of good practice was presented, tested, developed. On the web site http://odda.eu/materials/ are presented many kinds of materials and various methods of training. Also, the Bad Urach Memorandum was adopted. http://odda.eu/seminar-july-2017-creating-bridges-for-europe/
In the frame of ODDA, there have been two approaches: the more theoretical approach, to have a better understanding of the background of the acting, and a practical one, where have been developed, tested and evaluated methods to foster the communication and cooperation of people from different countries who try to overcome languages barriers and to better get to know each other, by Lectures, Keywords, Common key words as images, Translation App, The Danube Game, Social Media, Intercultural Workshops, Creative methods, Discovery tours, European Soirée, Songs and dances.
The Second Meeting of the ODDA Project was held at the University of Ruse, Bulgaria, 11-14 October 2017. 28 representatives of the partner organizations, Prof. Velizara Pencheva, PhD, Rector of the University of Ruse, Vice Rectors, university teachers and students, school students, the Mayor of Slivo Pole Region Mr. Valentin Atanasov, pensioners from the Union of Pensioners and chitalista of many villages and towns took part in the project activities.
The representatives of the partner organizations have presented there the project results.
More information: http://odda.eu/partner-meeting-ruse-2017/
In 2018 the successful project has entered the next stage: ODDA2. In this follow-up project all the material of the learning game “The wanted Danube” will be merged in a website, and a translator-tool as an app for smartphones will be conceptualized. The aim of the learning game “The Wanted Danube” is to convey impressions from the Danubian nations through pictures and information, as well as to encourage joint discussions about these countries.
Financial support: Baden-Württemberg Foundation, Heidehof Foundation, own resources, other sponsors.