PROJECT HEART OF EUROPE – HE-ART was financed by the European Union within the EUROPE FOR CITIZENS programme
1.Event 20th – 22nd of April 2018, titled: GEOSS, HEART OF SLOVENIA AND EUROPE
We thank all 38 participants from 6 EU Member States and one non-EU country, and the Slovenian participants, who contributed to the creation of the project, and shared their opinions, ideas, and experiences about the current global problem of immigrants in Europe.
Location/Date: In the project, the 1st event was held from 20th to 22nd of April – Project Heart of Europe, HE-ART.
It was held in the Municipality of Litija, Vače, Slivna, and GEOSS and its surrounding area.
Participation: The first event in Slovenia was attended by 37 international guests from seven countries: ALBANIA: 9, BULGARIA: 6, GREECE: 5, SWEDEN: 2, FRANCE: 3, ITALY: 8 and SPAIN: 4
There were 102 local participants.
Brief description: Project partners met and got to know one another, and started the process of realizing the project. Individual sections of the program were also attended by representatives of NGOs and municipalities, as well as local and other visitors to public events.
The partners presented each other their countries, non-governmental organizations, municipalities, cultural heritage, national symbols, identity, and culinary arts. We exchanged experiences and acquired knowledge. The discussion about the topic of immigrants and their integration into European society continued at our next meetings as well. The partners and the invited representatives of relevant non-governmental organizations acquainted themselves with Euroscepticism and the importance of art, volunteering, and mutual understanding in times of crisis in overcoming the stigmatization of immigrants. Non-governmental and partner organizations familiarized themselves with the concept of a Heart Point and with integration strategies for immigrants.
In our presentation we presented GEOSS as an example of a Heart Point, as an example of an area that, from the in-depth perceptiveness and acceptance of its cultural heritage, pulses with compassion, acceptance of diversity, friendship, peace and love – both for itself and for the people in every corner of this world.
We visited the Museum Ethnological Village of Slivna, which presents the Slovenian self-sufficiency, introduced the partners with this example of good practice of cultural tourism, to the cultural heritage of the municipality, culinary arts, and natural heritage, history, and art, as connective elements between people. We projected and presented the film “Here Comes Jemima,” which talks about the integration of the immigrant girl Jemima, about intergenerational cooperation, and about the importance of involvement in the life of one’s locality for everyone and everybody in order to make the world a better place.
We drafted the group logotype of the project, and simultaneously found out how remembering the positive human values even in the World War II and voluntarism have a significant impact on overcoming stigmatization (the unwanted labelling of difference/diversity, unfair attributing from prejudices) and on the spread of positive human actions and peace.
We have identified in what kind of EU we want to live in the future. We discussed the future, and the views on democratic civil participation for active EU citizenship.
We concluded the event with the visit of the partner Municipality of Litija and the mine Sitarjevec, and the capital of Slovenia – Ljubljana.