I launch in Romania international project ,, Different, but equal "

I launch in Romania the project ,, Different, but equal " because this year is European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion and I think that students with special needs can make beautiful things if we will help them . Here is the blog of the international project http://differentbutequaletwinning.blogspot.com/

Last year in 4 November I speak about this project in European Parliament from Bruxelles because I was selected in the 8 finalist in AtmosphEuropa Contest from 44 participants . My speech from 4 november in Eurobama Contest in European Parliament from Brusseles was against discrimination of students with special needs , against poverty and climate challenge

Here is my speech .

Mister president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert PÖTTERING , Mister president of The Intercultural Communication and Leadership School Geza Tessenyi , Representative of the Swedish Presidency (t.b.c.), Representative of the European Commission (t.b.c.) , dear europarlamentars , dear candidates and guests , honorated assistance because I’m not so good english speaker I will read my speech .

My name is Cornel Lucian Duma . I am a teacher of religion , history , citizenship and social studies in Caransebes, Romania . In the second year I was elected by my headmaster Elena Memelis as the coordinator of educational projects and programes in our Special School Caransebes , Romania . Our school is special because all our students are with special needs . Since the begining of my commision I have tried to fight against discrimination of students with special needs and for this reason I developed many educational projects and extracurricular activities in partenership with normal students from many schools in Caransebes . One of my educational projects is based on environnment problems and it is called ,, Water and nature is life itself ” .

In this project my students with special needs could see the importance of water and nature in people lives . I also involved my students in all kind of activities to make them fight against the problems of Climate Change and Global Warming : On 21 september ou Special School Caransebes participated toghether with thousands of schools from all over the world in the international campaign Eno Tree Planting Day 2009 and after we made a short video with our activities with can be watched on the oficial website for international campaign .

I want show to the whole world that students with special needs can make beautiful things in spite of their handicaps if they are helped by us because today in a selfish and egocentric society people forget mostly near them are others children or people with Special Needs Education who need understanding, help and support. Different but equal - is a principle of democracy and mutual respect. Diversity in ethnic and social categories on earth is the beauty of the human universe, each of us contributing to the cultural heritage with its specifics. History, traditions, culture of each ethnic group is an important chapter of universality. For this reason I have conceived and launched eTwinning project ,,Different , but equal ” – partenership and collaboration between students with special needs across the Europe ” and for our project we designed a website with photos , videos , presentations with all the activities made by the parteners involved in the project and also our project was approved by Ministry of Education Research and Innovation from Romania and by the European Commission as part of European Year for Creativity and innvoation , unfortunatelly our project was approved but we didn’t receive any funds from European Commision .

In this project I organized in partenership with Diocese and City Hall from Caransebes , Inspectoratul Scolar Judetean , Casa Corpului Didactic din Caras-Severin and Cosiliul Judetean Caras-Severin under eTwinning and Didactica in 7 april international symposium ,, Creativity and innovation in special education , project ,, Different, but equal „-first edition and we had three hundred fifty participants from all Romania . In our symposium we had three sections : section 1 – scientific comunications and referates , section 2 – Power Point presentations made by teachers with the activities –in this section was participated also our parteners from eTwinning project ,, Different, but equal ” – Signe Leht , Estonia ; Todor Lambov –Bulgaria , Arzu Borlas –Turkye , and in third section we organized international contest ,, Resurrection of Son of Good and the renaissance of whole humanity ” and in the final I present website for our project and after we made the vernisage of the exhibition at the Art Gallery Corneliu Baba from Caransebes .

Our slogan ,, We are people just like you, maybe sometimes with a better heart and want to show everybody that we can work, learn, play , respect each other and last but not least we love the neighbor who is in suffering . We learn to respect each other , to communicate, to cooperate , to tolerate each other . We want to make you understand that there are no differences between us . All we are different but equal. ”. The removal of discrimination between people must begin with the elimination of discrimination in education, because all the children who are now students will be the future members of European Union . In the same time we have as example the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Galatians three with twenty eight ,, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. ”

I try from two years to make in our school a club for art and creation with three workshops : workshop for drawing , collage and paintings , workshop for folk art and crafts , workshop for dolls and puppets but unfortunatelly I can’t made still now because is a mondial crisis .

Now is the time for all nations to join forces for to realize the importance of each individual either normal or with special educational needs and to start giving them our respect and consideration . And that is more important in the contxt of next year title EUROPEAN YEAR FOR COMBATING POVERTY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION .For this reason I think that all higher institutions of the European Union toghether with the member countries of the European Union should make a deal and should shake their hand and be involved in projects to help poor people and to remove discrimination between people because we are all part of the big family of European Union. From my experiences gained during the years I believe that the most effective teaching approaches designed to integrate all children in school are those that we offer as many opportunities to work and play together, to discover new things together. If we will give to children with Special Needs a multitude of learning experiences, it will be easier to integrate them later in society .

SO LET’S WORK TOGHETHER AND FIGHT AGAINST DISCRIMINATION , POVERTY AND CLIMATE CHANGE .