Mondialogo: a resounding success story of intercultural dialogue among students
The Mondialogo School Contest has linked up over 95,000 students in 161 countries and set a new standard for intercultural dialogue projects.
“It opens up the minds of the students, exposes them to other cultures, issues and people, and makes education truly borderless,” said Ameeta Mulla Wattal, a participating teacher from India.
Launched in 2003 by Daimler and UNESCO, the contest twinned students from ASPnet and other secondary schools in teams across continents. Their brief was to elaborate joint projects on UNESCO themes with the accent on cultural diversity and the power of intercultural dialogue.
Projects conducted by winners included:
• a board game explaining action to be taken in case of natural disasters (teams: Turkey/Japan, 2004);
• an information campaign on HIV and AIDS prevention (teams: South Africa/Australia, 2004);
• setting up a school for street children in Jakarta (teams: Indonesia/Italy, 2006);
• a solidarity project for Iraqi refugee children (teams: Syria/USA, 2008)*; and
• the design of clothing from recycled goods e.g. paper, leaves, tin cans, etc. (teams: Mexico/ Germany, 2008).
The creative projects submitted to Mondialogo testified to a vibrant interactive dialogue. Student teams with different cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds joined together in a spirit of solidarity to carry out hands-on activities in favour of inclusive quality education, access to education, human rights, peace and tolerance.
Three international Mondialogo Symposia were held in 2004, 2006, and 2008 in Barcelona (Spain), Rome (Italy) and Beijing (China) respectively. They brought together representatives from each of the 50 finalist teams from all parts of the world. Interactive activities and creative workshops and visits to World Heritage sites were organized. At an award ceremony, all finalists received Certificates of Recognition for their outstanding work. The first prize was €1,500, the second €1,000 and third €500. The cheques were made out to the schools to equip them for pursuing further intercultural dialogue.
Mondialogo opened new perspectives for the systematic integration of intercultural dialogue in education. UNESCO Associated Schools are encouraged to continue their efforts in this area so that thousands more young students can benefit from the enrichment of cultural exchanges.
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