THE  THIRD  INTERNATIONAL  MEETING  OF  THE  ‘REACHOUT’  PROJECT.

ROMANIA -  OCTOBER  25-28, 2008.

The meeting was hosted by Colegiul Agricoe ‘Nicolae Cornateanu’ of Tulcea, ROMANIA  and attended by the other five partners of the project;

 TURKEY – Özel Ataşehir Adıgüzel Güzel Sanatlar Lisesi – Istanbul, with Jacky Sema Pezukoglu General Coordinator of the project, and; Founder member Mehmet Uğur Adıgüzel,  Headmistress Nurhan Hocaoglu, Associate Dr. Osman Pezukoglu, Teacher Lale Guney and  Students Begum Akkaya, Begum Balcık, Barış Yapman and Ceylan Demirtaş.

 ANKARA Polis Koleji with Teachers; Murat Gulmuş, Metin Şahin, Özgür Günaydın, Mahmut Aydın and Students Batıbey Batmacı and Ahmet Metin Birgili.

CZECH REPUBVLIC – Stredni Zdravotnicka Skola A Vyssi Odborna Skola Zdravotnicka, Vsetin with Coordinator Miluska Blazkova , Miroslava Krasulova, Sarka Novakova, Students; Jan Vrablik, Jakub Vrana, Tomas Zbranek and Daniel Betak.

ITALY – one Italian school included in REACHOUT project is Istituto Superiore ‘G.F.Gemelli Careri’. with coordinators Lidia Iannace and Christine Foti, Antoinetta Nicotra, Students Alessandro Lombardo, Martino Latella and Vincenzo Surace.

ROMANIA – Coleguil Agricol “Nicolae Cornateanu” Tulcea with the support of Headmistress Caterina Ciumacenco, headmaster Costache Adrianand coordinator Monica Fodor.

FRANCE – Associates;  Dorothee Leglise from Lycee Regional Paul Augier, Nice, Yves Leglise from F.F.T.S.T., Paris and Sacha Leglise from College Jean Rostand, Nice.

There were 24 other teachers and students who were involved in the meeting making a total of 46 participants.

During the four days of the meeting, the delegates were received by, Mr. CONSTANTIN HOGEA,  Mayor of Tulcea. Istanbul’s founder member, Mr. UĞUR ADIGUZEL, presented a crystal statue from Adiguzel Education Foundation and other gifts were made by all the delegates.  They were also invited to seminars  by CLAUDIA IOSIFESCU - coordinator of the Information Centre for Waste Management, LILIANA IVANCENCO- assistant manager of Education Department at Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Authority  complete with a boat trip along the Delta to a fish restaurant and  IUSEIN IBRAM - leader of the  local Turkish Community, invited the Turkish contingents to a traditional Turkish breakfast an d a small choir gave renditions of Turkish Folk songs. This was followed by a trip to the only and last Mosque in Tulcea. There is also a bust, in honour of Ataturk, in a prominent part of the town.

The first work meeting began with a welcome speech by Romania’s Headmistress CATERINA CIUMACENCO. A presentation of a statue to the Romanian school was made by General Coordinator JACKY PEZUKOGLU on behalf of Adıgüzel Fine Arts High School.

All partners made a presentation of the work they have been doing starting with the host partner, ROMANIA.  They presented a calendar which provides ideas for activities parents can do with their children in an effort to assist families to interact positively.  They also prepared toys which were shown as possible mascots for the project. Previously, they had made a puzzle toy for which all partners were to provide varying stories.

Next Mr. Leglise on behalf of F.F.T.S.T. FRANCE reported that they had sent the collected logos  to the French Tour Operators to choose which logo was most effective.  The logos were well received and the Operators explained why they chose the particular logo.  A report from the French Cultural Ministry, about the project meeting, was shown on the internet and the president of SKAL France, Annette Masson was given as an international associate to contact.  Mr. Leglise advised the delegates to write letters to world associations like SKAL to get support for the project.

The CZECH REPUBLIC presented a very good song, live, about using the number 111 to make a call for help by children in the street and provided the delegates with a copy on CD and the words in text.  They made a calendar of the four seasons with windows in which activities can be seen.  Also presented was a sheep as a mascot for the project which was said to represent the warmth of the family in the home.

ITALY reported that in the interviews they made 60% of the people interviewed,  knew there was a problem of child abuse but they didn’t know what to do about it. In January there will be a meeting at Istituto Careri School with a psychologist, a judge, members of the police force and other members of local authorities where a seminar will be given to discuss the problem.  The Italian contingent prepared a short film showing students dramatising the subject of child abuse in the classroom and they made a sample greetings card of snowmen in a circle and one blue snowman in the middle.  Also a paperweight, shopping bag and a mouse pad were given as suggestions of products.  The libraries and official school book suppliers in the local area have been approached to include bookmarkers with the schoolbooks and reading books that are loaned from the library.

ANKARA delegates renewed their logo and played a very good song also, which accompanied their spot film about children and the police protecting them. They gave out name cards written in calligraphy to all the coordinators and head teachers. They gave a demonstration of brainstorming in the meeting asking why the abuse is still continuing.

 The answers that were shared were; finance or the lack of it in many families, lack of family attention and bad friendships. The people want to be accepted but they have low self esteem.

 The group was asked how to solve this problem? The responses were; Good legislation, inform people, communicate to people who refuse to see that there is a problem and that they should accept that.

 How to solve the problem? We have to change ourselves and our child. Look after them and talk to them instead of hitting them.

How to protect them?  Let them see that they are a valuable member of the community and prepare them for the world.  It’s very important that they have a good role model to give them a good example.  Check their friends, push them towards sports to gain self confidence and prevent bad habits like smoking and taking drugs. Talk to them about their lives and socialise with the youth.  Show them compassion and love.

ISTANBUL, presented a short film which had been prepared by the students and teachers of the theatre, radio and television sections of, Adiguzel High School. A calendar of one month of ideas was shown on computer, and they showed an updated version of the power point slide show which is used in all sponsor presentations and contains details of the project, sponsors, logo competition and communication between varying institutions.General Coordinator, Jacky Sema Pezukoglu, gave a detailed account of how to approach sponsors and how the SKAL Marmara club had agreed to give support to use of the REACHOUT logo in their hotels. She also reported on the favourable reaction of associations like the Rotary and Lions Clubs in Istanbul.  Sweatshirts with the picture made in the Czech Republic and the top three logos were given to all delegates by Istanbul along with posters of the meeting and CDs of the short warning film which had been prepared by the students and teachers of  Adıgüzel  High School. Istanbul also presented a banner to FFTST representative, Yves Leglis, and  also informed the meeting that the police force in Istanbul had agreed to distribute the poster, that they had made and handed out, in English and Turkish informing people about the project and its aim to stop child abuse.  Ankara Police College was requested to do the same in their area and the delegates advised to try the same in their countries.  General Coordinator, Jacky reported that the project was being sponsored by Turkish Airlines and Green Park Hotel besides having the aid of a famous singer, Ms.Sezen Aksu and composer Zülfü Livanelli.

The general coordinator asked that all partners take control of their own page on the project web site and answered questions arising from the topic concerning access and use of the site and all confirmed that they would concentrate on bringing their pages of the site up to date.

The winning logo was prepared by Ayberk Akbulut of Adiguzel Education Foundation, Fine Arts Section. The logo, which had received the majority of votes, was that of a hand holding a child. Some modifications were requested by the delegates; that the fingers be shorter, the body should appear to be the front of a person and have no eyes, the rainbow should be close against the head and that the hand should be a lighter blue but the rainbow should have darker colours without yellow.

It was decided that the final meeting, to be held in ISTANBUL, would be held between 10-13 May 2009, with delegates arriving one day before and leaving one day later.

Each country was given one task to complete for the next meeting in order to consolidate energies.

All final suggestions for scenarios, for the final film presentation to be done by ISTANBUL, should be sent to ISTANBUL by December 21, 2008. In time to prepare for May 2009 presentation.

All final stories for a puzzle to be given in by 21 December 2008 and to be submitted to CZECH REPUBLIC as well as any mascot choices.

All final ideas, for the calendar, are to be sent to ROMANIA by 21 December 2008.

Changes to the graphics of the logo will be prepared by ISTANBUL and sent to ANKARA for dissemination as soon as possible.

ITALY will be responsible for preparing the paper weight, New Year’s card and Mouse pad.  It was decided that ALL DELEGATES will be responsible for informing ITALY which greeting  they would like in their own languages but on reflection this may not be viable due to lack of space, therefore Italy needs to inform the general coordinator of the final recommended form of the card and a decision will be made accordingly.

ALL DELEGATES are charged with updating their website page and finding sponsors to perpetuate the site after the three year term has expired.  A mutual song will be prepared to be sung altogether at the final meeting in Istanbul.

FRANCE agreed to discuss the possibility of sponsors coming to the final meeting in Istanbul with them and inform us accordingly.  Mr. Leglis also informed the delegates of the European Quality of Projects Competition that occurs at the end of the final year of the project and advised that we apply to compete in this.  We should have all our products to show at the end of July 2009 and we can also apply for the European School’s title.

The meeting closed with a farewell party hosted by Coleguil Agricol “Nicolae Cornateanu” Tulcea with the support of Headmistress Caterina Ciumacenco, headmaster Costache Adrian, coordinator Monica Fodor and the students of the hosting school. There was folk dancing and belly dancing by the students, which delighted everyone. 

On behalf of all the delegates at the meeting, I sincerely thank the ROMANIAN partners for all their hospitality, patience, hard work and achievement. Congratulations.

Jacky Sema Pezukoglu

General Coordinator  of ‘REACHOUT’ Project

Adiguzel Education Foundation

Ataşehir

Istanbul

09 November 2008.