Living in the time of corona – My personal experience
…to include short stories, poems, notes, reflections, anecdotes, interviews, photographs, caricatures and drawings
Present your personal cultural treasure & take part in the creative writing, photo and video competitions!
Project CODANEC:
The closing date for the competition has been moved to 15th of June!
The Danube-Networkers invite: Come together! Connecting people in times of Corona by culture
The Danube-Networkers in Ulm encourage people to join the COME TOGETHER session by video conference to enjoy the community and culture. We sing, make music or present lyrics as listeners or active participants.
Check out more about how we connect cultures, how we strengthen solidarity and how we like to meet each other even in times of the corona crisis.
The sessions take place regularly!
The sessions are organised by the Ileu-Team in Ulm, coordinator of the educational Network Danube-Networkers and office of DANET e.V.
Click here on the link for more information: http://codanec.eu/come-together/
Read more about our new projects
„Open Doors for Danube Countries for All“ (ODDA) – www.odda.eu
Connecting Danube Neigbours by Culture (CODANEC) – www.codanec.eu
Danube Excursions – www.danube-excursions.eu
Tastes of Danube – Bread connects – www.bread-connects.tastes-of-danube.eu
These projects have been started by ILEU e.V. – www.ileu.net
Danube-Excursion- a game for young and old is online!
Link to the game: www.danube-excursions.eu
The online game Danube-Excursions has the goal to attract young and old to impart basic knowledge about the ten Danube countries in a playful way and encourage the players to talk about these countries.
A Memo, a Quiz and a Knowledge section are the three main elements. Through a combination of pictures and questions the players are challenged to find interesting information on selected country-specific phenomena from the fields of nature, culture and everyday life. The game is available in 6 languages (German, English, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian and Croatian). There is also a download area for different materials.
Danube-Excursions can be played with the family, with senior citizen groups, school classes and intergenerational groups.
The ODDA-SCT conversation app from Danube Networkers is now available in the Google Play Store
Within the framework of the project Open Doors for Danube Countries for ALL (ODDA), supported by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation, the Heidehof Foundation and the City of Ulm, a tool for low-threshold communication in German, Serbian, Romanian, Croatian and Bulgarian was created under the leadership of the Ulm project team of volunteers. The first approach was lists on paper with 450 questions and answers for easy communication. With Serbian and Bulgarian, limits were quickly reached because of the Cyrillic script. This could have been solved only with phonetic transcription.
However, a retired and passionate computer scientist in the team had an app in mind. He created the structure and design of the app. You can get started by using 15 categories like welcome, hobby, job, family, etc. You will get questions and answers. All are stored as text in the 5 languages and additionally as voice recordings. With one click you can listen to the selected text. It is very important that the app runs without internet connection, because in some buildings and in many rural areas of our partners in the Eastern European countries there is no internet.
First Slovenian study programme in older adult education. SPIDW studied by master students
by Dusana Findeisen, Slovenian Third Age University
The Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy within Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana is offering a new master study programme in older adult education. Nives Ličen, once a student volunteer supporting the establishment of Slovenian U3A has proposed and co-developed this new study programme premised upon the tenets of a number of disciplines and study fields.; sociology, psychology, geography (local communities), geragogy, studies in education of older adults, cultural studies etc. Students are also presented with the endeavours made in EU projects- among which SPIDW- and the field of methods (BBE) as well as visual literacy of older people (CINAGE and RefugeesIn). A lot of research work is being done by the students in co-operation with Slovenian Third Age University particularly as concerns socially engaged education of older students, their expansive / exploratory learning/ creating new social practices, etc. The programme is the first of its kind in this part of Europe.
DANET Board met in Belgrade, 21st-24th January 2020
by Dusana Findeisen, Slovenian Third Age University
Over ten years the Association Danube Networkers for Europe, DANET has carried out numerous international events with massive participation of older and younger people along the Danube and has been spurring the establishment of new social practices, new third age universities, while intensifying interconnectivity of organisations, regions, etc. In addition, DANET has been awarded several European awards for its contribution to the strengthening of civil society in the Danube region. Field of activities? Social participation of older people, education of older people, dialogue of generations for social solidarity, research of education in later life, creation of new social practices, devising and hosting international conferences, etc. Initially meant to support the Danube Strategy focusing primarily on energy, environment, etc. but leaving social development and civil society aside, DANET and its members -Slovenian Third Age University is its founding member- have been supportive of social development in the region, bringing together traditional and new organizations as well as professionals dealing with the older people’s issues. DANET offers a learning platform to those who are interested in its field of activities. In this meeting those who were present rather appreciated the endeavours of SPIDW and the Method of City games,. And Belgrade? The city is changing, but it still has its distinctive flair and culture embodied by the programme of the National Theatre, concerts, bookstores, some traditional restaurants, etc., where the typical traditional townspeople’s respectful spirit is present resisting the new American/global values of consumerism, profit making, as well as the phenomena of social polarisation and a “political” scene full of hidden or overt contradictory interests.
The 10th newsletter is now online
The 10th Newsletter (October 2019) of the “Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET) e.V.” is now online!
To the newsletter: https://en.danube-networkers.eu/newsletters/10/
European project “Building Bridges for Europe” – ideas and inspiration for educators and committed Europeans
Within the framework of the Erasmus+ partnership “Building bridges for Europe” (BBE), nine project partners from six European countries (Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy) have created an online toolbox with projects and applied methods that strengthen European awareness and critical thinking of participants in the projects and help to break down prejudices against others.
For two years, the project partners have been very committed to analysing selected projects according to jointly developed criteria and to describing in more detail methods that have been successfully applied in adult education. The results can be found online at www.bbe-toolbox.eu. The toolbox contains 27 projects and over 50 methods that are easy to call up. A Google translator also translates the texts into various other languages. The collected knowledge is to all interested ones free of charge at the disposal. The website inspires its users* inside to use new methods of the adult education, target groups are in particular older adults, women, low-qualified people, people from rural areas, and migrants.
The project was launched within the framework of the informal education network Danube-Networkers. During the course of the project, the project partners deepened their working relationships and exchanged experience and expertise on educational opportunities in their countries. They intend to continue European cooperation in the field of general adult education, in particular third age education, and to further develop intergenerational cooperation.
This project partnership was financially supported by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union. The project coordinator was the Institute for Virtual and Real Learning in Adult Education at the University of Ulm ( ILEU) e.V., Ulm, German partner the ZAWIW of the University of Ulm, the Center for Continuing Education for Older People of the University Angel Kanchev in Ruse and the Agora Platform, Sofia, both Bulgaria, the Writers’ League Timisoara Banat Branch and the University Dunarea de Jos from Galati, both Romania, the Public Open University Zagreb, Croatia, the Association of Slovenian Universities of the Third Age, the international association Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET) and the Association of Universities of the Third Age in Italy (FEDERUNI).
Website: www.bbe-toolbox.eu
First International Danube Strategy Conference by SI Danube. Soroptimists from six Danube countries pass call for European elections
The Soroptimist Club Ulm-Donaustadt hosted the first conference of the new Danube network SI-Danube with its partner club in the Bulgarian Danube city of Ruse in May (1.-3.5. 2019).
Representatives from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium and Germany developed strategies for further networking at the two-day conference at the University of Ruse. The focus was on the joint adoption of a call for European elections against the background of growing populism and low turnout in Eastern European countries in the last elections to the European Parliament in 2014. Women from East and West called for voting for candidates in EU member states who stand for social justice and progress, the protection of human rights and equal rights. The content of the conference and the call for elections were well received by the local media.
The informal network gave itself a structure in Ruse. Annette Schmidt from the SI Club Ulm-Donaustadt was elected chairman of the SI Danube Committee, to which clubs from each country will send representatives in the future. The Danube networker Carmen Stadelhofer from Ulm (founder of Danube Networkers and ILEU) is honorary chairman of the association.
From a series of proposals for joint Danube projects, the conference decided on a first priority work in the field of education on Danube water quality and environment.
The new network SI Danube was founded on the initiative of the SI Club Ulm-Donaustadt at a soroptimistic meeting on the occasion of the International Danube Festival Ulm/Neu-Ulm in July 2018. Through an effective network it supports the dissemination of the goals of Soroptimist International and promotes the personal acquaintance of women in the Danube countries.
Contact: Anita Schlesak, President Soroptimist Club Ulm-Donaustadt 2018-2020 Phone 0172-45 26 838
International Workshop “Education and Voluntary Work in the Third Age” in Ruse
Through an interesting side program, the participants got a direct insight into the living environment of elderly in Bulgaria. At the end of the workshop, participants expressed the desire to learn more about each other and to continue the transnational work – in the spirit of a peaceful and united Europe.
The workshop was organized by the “Institute for virtual and face-to-face learning in adult education at the Ulm University (ILEU) e.V.”, Ulm, Germany, in close cooperation with the “German National Association of Senior Citizens’ Organisations (BAGSO)”, Bonn, Germany, and the University “Angel Kanchev” in Ruse, Bulgaria. The event was sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in Germany.
Click HERE to see the results of the workshop.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) awards the Danube Networkers 2018 for their commitment to civil society in the “Bread connects” project
In December 2018, the Danube Networkers were awarded the first prize of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels for their project “Bread connects”. The EESC considered this initiative to be worthy of the first prize because it corresponds impressively to this year’s theme “Identities, European values and cultural heritage in Europe”. Around 150 applications from 27 EU member states were received this year. The five best entries received prize money. The aim of the prize, which is awarded annually and endowed with a total of € 50,000, is to support organisations and individuals whose projects make a creative and innovative contribution to the promotion of European identity and integration.
Photo: Presentation of the first prize by President Luca Jahier to Carmen Stadelhofer, Chairwoman DANET e.V., Ulm and Prof. Emilia Velikova, Vice-President, Ruse, on 13.12.2018 in Brussels
International Conference “Soroptimists along the Danube stand up for Europe by Networking”
Date: 1-3 May, 2019
Location: University of Ruse, Bulgaria
Club Ruse of the international women’s organisation Soroptimist International is a host and organiser of an international conference Soroptimists along the Danube stand up for Europe by Networking, which will be held at the University of Ruse on 2-3 May, 2019.The conference is co-organised by the long-term partner club SI Ulm-Donaustadt, Germany and unites more than 40 representatives of the Soroptimist organisation from Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Belgium.
At 2nd of May guests and plenary speakers at the conference will be Ms. Gerda Rosiers, Chair of the Extension Committee of SI Europe and member of SI Visé, Belgium, and Prof. Rumiana Stoilova from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia.They will present to the delegates some historical milestones from the development of the women’s movement in Europe and in the Danube region, as well as talk about the equal rights of women and men in all professional and life situations today which face our communities in all countries, and the opportunities to overcome discrimination through active social inclusion and mutual support.
After the plenary session the work will continue in working groups, where the opportunities for collaboration in the fields of Social welfare and Health, Environment, Culture and Education will be discussed.In a special workshop “Europe”, a statement will be developed on behalf of the participants in support of united Europe and the Europe Elections in May 2019.
The second day of the conference will start with a Round table Plea for Europe: Why a common Europe is important for women and why it is important to vote in the European Elections on 23 – 26 May 2019. After approval, the common Appeal will be disseminated by the delegates in their respective clubs and communities.
At the end of the conference, the delegates will visit one of the projects of SI Club Ruse “Bread connects our memories and our dreams”, implemented in partnership with Association DANET, academic student club “Young social pedagogue” with the University of Ruse and the Centres for work with children in the street and for family type accommodation.
Carmen Stadelhofer
6th Danube Participation Day, 2019 [ Youth – Participation – Empowerment ]
Save-the-Date: 26 June 2019, 9:00 – 17:30, Bucharest
Join the next Danube Participation Day organised by the PA 10 Institutional Capacity and Cooperation, Danube Civil Society Forum, Transylvania Social NGO Federation, Sustainable Development Group Constanta coming up in June in Bucharest, Romania.
The 6th Danube Participation Day will be held one day before the 8th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.
More about it: http://dlap.danubestrategy.eu/event/6th-danube-participation-day-2019-youth-%E2%80%93-participation-%E2%80%93-empowerment
Detailed information about the event will be accessible soon!