Associations Like DANET Are  Social Investment

Including And Engaging Older People And Other Generations

The Ljubljana EURAG Conference Is Approaching

Two days ago at Slovenian Third Age University took place They are us. (slov. Oni smo mi), a  round table on migrants and migrations. The round table was about migrants and how they are welcomed  but as a matter of fact,  it was also about  older people since  it was focused on inclusion, integration, social engagement and their impact on societies. Migrants or older people need to be included. But not one by one…What is needed are systems and organisations.

Based in Ulm, DANET (https://danube-networkers.eu/ ) is a European association and a network of  organisastions for learning in later life,  social participation and intergenerational dialogue along the Danube. It is in itself  social investment creating bridges among different cultures, organisations, institutions, among generations and older people themselves. To put it differently it is in itself social capital or social investmet bringing together older people and professionals’ knowledge, skills, experience and culture.

I am going to introduce DANET at the EURAG Conference  that will be held in my hometown Ljubljana from 6.-8.  May, the conference being devoted to the role of organisations of and for older people or mixed organisations and and their impact on society. Such organisations are what sociologists call. social capital. Without them human and cultural capital would be lost, societies would be less effective.

Currently the term social capital is being widely used by sociologists and other professionals, though for a long time it was burdened with economic connotations. But social capital is nothing really new. It is like old wine in  a new bottle. (Field, 2008 ). The central thesis of social capital  can be summarised: relationships matter and relationships transform the actors and transform society.

In my contribution to the EURAG conference I will be introducing DANET, its political and pragmatic role in the countries along the Danube. I will be touching upon its past and its current experience uniting  older people (notwithstanding the level of their formal education and their social background) and their communities.

 

Dušana Findeisen

 

 

Collection of proverbs and sayings in the different Danube countries about bread, wine herbs. More about: http://tastes-of-danube.eu/proverbs-and-sayings/

Collection of wine labels from different Danube Regions . Please be so kind and send photos or scans (if possible as jpg files with max. size of 500 kb) to wolfgang@doster.de. See: http://tastes-of-danube.eu/wine-labels/

The 4th Newsletter (March 2016) of the „Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET) e.V.“ is available with different topics: the new project “Tastes of Danube: Bread, Wine, Herbs”, the meeting of the WG 3 of DCSF in Ulm in October 2015, the history and the activities of the Centre for Adult Education in Bulgaria, etc.

https://en.danube-networkers.eu/newsletters/4/

 

Bread survey “Bread in the change of times”: on a general regional level by an ID carte of use of bread, . by a personal questionnaire using the way of interviews to get memories about living conditions and habits.

More about: http://tastes-of-danube.eu/bread-survey-bread-in-the-change-of-times/

Marathon of Reading was organized on 19 th April, 2016 in Caritas – Center for Social Support, Ruse. The participants were 30 school students from the Primary School “Angel Kanchev” with Head Mr. Encho Enchev, university students from the course Social Pedagogy, who are members of the Club Young Educator/ Social Educator and their leader Pr. Assist. Prof. Dr Bagryana Ilieva, and voluntaries from the Caritas Center for Social Support. The younger students were made familiar with the old Bulgarian tales about bread. Dr Bagryana Ilieva gave a bread to all participants. The bread was given from the International Association DANET with President Mrs. Carmen Stadelhofer, Akad. Dir’in a.D.

A meeting “Intergenerational Learning” was organized on 4th April, 2016 in the Center of Old People in Ruse. There were 24 participants – people from the Center, students from the course Social Pedagogy, University of Ruse, who are also members of the Club Young Educator/ Social Educator, and the leader of the club Pr. Assist. Prof. Dr Bagryana Ilieva. The young educators made a presentation on the role of the bread in our life. Nice songs were presented by the elderly people. The students and many old people were trained to make a bread by hands (not with a machine). The trainers wеre 2 representatives of the Center and 1 student. The participants were very satisfied.

The 15th of March we started in Ulm the transdanubian Action “Danube Bread on Tour” by a primal dough which will be the base of a band of friendship made symbolically by bread.

This primal bread dough will be taken along the Danube River and through the Danube Region countries by bike, by foot, by car or plane and will reach cities and communities. It will be parted and shared again and again. People are going to bake bread out of this dough with their individual ingredients, share it with others and document it.The 18th we started in Bulgaria, the 21th of March in Budapest to widespread the basic dough. The 18th of April we will bring the dough toTimisoara, Romania, the 20th to Vrsac in Serbia,the22th to Belgrade. You are all invited to take part, to document your participation and to pass the dough to other people (family, friends, school classes, members of a group of your organization ) and to invite them to join us. More about this action in all project languages: http://tastes-of-danube.eu/bread-tour-in-the-danubecountries/

We initiated other common actions we friendly ask you to inform your participants and to invite them to take part.