Category Archives: Palermo – Italy

Sicilians In Finland

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WELCOME POSTER!
At school!
-26° and having fun!
Writing Comenius in the snow
The sunset on the frozen lake
Tea and cake
In the Town Museum

Hi! We are Martina and Roberto. We are the students from Palermo, together with Gaia and Riccardo, who travelled to Tampere in January 2013. When we arrived at Tampere Airport in the evening,  our twins Helka and Olli were waiting for us and we were all excited! The families were very friendly as well.

The next day we went to school. It is a beautiful school although the building isn’t new. We met other Finnish students and teachers and the headmistress welcomed all the Comenius group.Then we had a short and interesting history lesson about Finland. After an Englishman who teaches English at this school talked about Finnish people and his experience of living in Finland. It was very funny! We had lunch in the canteen with our friends.

Then a professor from Tampere University talked to us about courses in English that are open even to students coming from other countries. That can be very useful for us in the near future!

After that, we went sightseeing and spent the evening at home with our families. We were happy to stay indoors because it was very cold outside! Some of us tried the sauna, another new experience for us!

The next day every school group made posters about the school system in their countries and then had to present them to everybody.  After  lunch we took to coach to Kuru College of Forestry,  situated in fact in a forest. A teacher there informed us about what students learn there and how they are trained.

It was around -26 degrees! And we went on a short walk in the wood with a guide. Luckily there was a centre in the nature reserve where we went to see a documentary and buy some souvenirs and of course find some warmth! After the teachers of the Finnish school took us to a beautiful frozen lake. It was awesome with the sun setting! Nearby we had some tea and cake.

The following day was Saturday and we spent the morning in two interesting museums in town. One was inside an old textile factory and in fact it was full of information about the industrial past of the city. The second had several exhibitions. Very interesting the one about the war.

We had a free afternoon but the real highlight was the farewell party organized inside the school. There was a great buffet and then we saw videos and funny sketches in the school theatre. Riccardo showed off on the piano! And after games and lots of fun  with the fabulous guys of Tampere and all the others. It was a fantastic way of ending a short but intense international meeting.

Emilio at Stratford

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2012-09-14 13.48.28Hi!  My name is Emilio. That’s me next to Giuliana.

It was a fantastic experience for me to take part in the first meeting, first of all
because I hadn’t ever been to England before, and then because I had the
opportunity of meeting very nice people (both students and teachers) and
exchanging ideas  with them all. The principal part of our work in
the two days of meeting was to prepare the planning of what to do in Malaga
(the Spanish city involved in the project), and the best ideas were to clean
Malaga’s beach of the rubbish and to play a beachvolley match. Unfortunately,
the meeting was just for two days, but I had a real good time in Stratford and
I think it was an unforgettable experience.

Volunteering In Palermo

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Volunteering in Palermo

Sicilian people have always been very hospitable and they have always shown great tolerance to people of other faiths and origins.

Traditionally young people in Sicily are actively involved in church associations as well as in the Scouts.

Young people in Palermo are becoming more and more aware of social injustice and are willing to care for and work for the destitute.

Thanks to the project, the Comenius group of students successfully organized a football match in March 2013 to raise money to bring to Malaga.

Another example is how the Liceo students have reacted to the Lampedusa migrant shipwreck in Oct. 2013. Teachers and students of  the Liceo Classico Vittorio Emanuele  have met experts, such as journalists, doctors,  NGO members, on several occasions, in order to acquire more information on the topical issue of immigration across the Mediterranean sea and how it is to be dealt with.

incontro 4

Many initiatives have been planned throughout the school year; some have been already carried out, such as a fundraising bazaar at school on 13 Dec., the proceeds of which were donated to the migrant shelter at Piana degli Albanesi, a small city near Palermo.

giusino 3

There is also active collaboration going on  with the Church of Santa Chiara in  the centre of Palermo, which  hosts several social services aimed at temporary and stable immigrants; several students and teachers from the Liceo are engaged every week in volunteer service and are  busy helping migrant children and adults with school homework, teaching the Italian language and organizing sports activities.

Afternoon sports at Santa Chiara

 On 1 March, the day of the Migrants in Italy, the school held a conference inviting many people belonging to the different migrant communities in Palermo to discuss, together with some experts, about the rights of foreign people and to perform and share some dances and poem readings.