EAEA General Assembly
EAEA General Assembly 20th October 2008
On October 20th AONTAS hosted the EAEA General Assembly meeting where over eighty representatives from different organisations around Europe gathered at the Grand Hotel in Malahide. The Assembly meetings provide members of the EAEA with the opportunity to shape the direction of the organisation.
EAEA Website: http://www.eaea.org/
A highlight of the Assembly was the Grundtvig Awards Ceremony. President Mary McAleese presented both awards to 
representatives from the winning projects, which reflect this years theme of adult education and intercultural learning. To read the President's speech, click here.
During the Assembly a new Board was elected. Sue Waddington from NIACE was elected President.
For more information about the new Board, click here.
Grundtvig Award Winners 2008 - Recognising Intercultural Learning
In September of this year, a judging panel comprising of members of the EAEA (European Association of Education for Adults) and individuals with expertise in the area of interculturalism selected two recipients for the Grundtvig Awards 2008. The theme of this year's awards was 'Intercultural dialogue in non formal adult education and learning'.
Awards were given in two different categories, as follows:
1. European Transnational Projects: (European Category)
2. Projects outside of Europe: (International Category)
Winner - European Category
The award in the European Category goes to ROC Tilburg in the Netherlands. Noureddine Erradi (Project Co-orodinator)and Roland Kloeg accepted the award on behalf of the group.
The project itself is entitled Benim Adim Einar - which translates as 'Professionals Experience Integration in Turkey.' This project targeted 23 professionals from 8 countries around Europe who are directly involved in integration work in their countries.
The idea behind the project was to provide the participants with an insight into the challenges and frustrations of integration as experienced by newcomers into a country. The group of professionals were asked to travel to a small town in Turkey in order to take part in the same integration programme as immigrants in their own country. The programme covered language and social skills, as well as an intake interview. Participant's experiences of the programme were documented in DVD form. This film has since been shown in over 17 European countries, and is available to order. For more information or to order copies of the film visit www.newcomersinturkey.com.
The main aim of the project was to show that integration is not just a one-sided process. The project has demonstrated that integration comes from both sides. The project also puts the question 'How to deal with other cultures' into practice.
Winner - International Category
The award in the International Category goes to the group Pusat Komas, for their project 'Education for Non Discrimination focusing on Issues of Race and Ethnicity'. Jerald Joseph will receive the award on behalf of the group.
Malaysia is a country with a high level of racial and religious discrimination. The political system in Malaysia also makes it difficult for open discussion on overcoming race issues. Komas aims to create a space where Malaysians can have an open and safe space to understand Malaysian issues of race and ethnicity and use a framework to work towards fighting racism and discrimination. NGOs such as Komas have a very important role to play in terms of promoting anti racist educational initiatives at community level. This project had two main aims in order to address this issue. Firstly, the project wanted to raise awareness about the impact of discrimination on people's everyday behaviour. Secondly, the project wanted to develop an educational resource for local community workers who wanted to address the issue of racism. With these aims in mind, the group developed videos, a training module for facilitators, and held a national seminar.
For more information, visit www.komas.org.
