4th Grundtvig Award 2006
‘Fighting Poverty through Learning´
Jury motivation: Our theme for this year´s Grundtvig Award, the 4th Annual award, was ‘Fighting Poverty through Learning´. We chose this topic because it coincides with the current UNESCO initiative and, globally, as well as in the European context, it is of premier importance in bridging the gap between those in poverty and those above the poverty line.
The winner of this year´s European Grundtvig Award is Transnational Education for Adult Emigrants. The partner countries in this project are Germany, Denmark and Turkey. The jury chose this project because, although the reduction of poverty was not it´s primary objective, it meets all the other criteria and poverty reduction is a positive consequence, following the project.
It is adaptable and draws attention to the problems of migrants in Europe, the enlargement of the EU, and the need for education in citizenship. All these subjects have a relevance and an immediacy which is reflected in the launch of the Communication on Adult Learning. It has an innovative approach which aims at developing methodologies and models of good practice that are transferable to settings with similar characteristics and thus have a multiple effect.
We are particularly delighted to have a Turkish co-ordinated project. This shows the strong motivation that Turkey has to be involved in European educational matters and is actually being involved in them. We are also proud to remember that the first ideas for this project were conceived on an EAEA training seminar in Hungary in 2004.
We also want to award a special merit to ‘Learning to Prosper´, a local development plan linked to a well-established education programme in the UK. This project works to lift people out of poverty by empowering the community and similarly stresses the link between lifelong learning and personal and social development. It could be replicated in problem areas in towns and cities anywhere in Europe.
The 4th Annual Grundtvig Award Out of Europe goes to ‘Poverty Reduction and Capacity Building through Livelihood Skill Training at CSTCs and VTCs´, Ethiopia. Clearly, fighting poverty is one of the major concerns in Ethiopia and a project which aims to alleviate poverty in this desperate country is very commendable and we wish it every success. The link between learning and poverty is much more obvious here and this project shows that focusing on learning for social issues can be very worthwhile.
In our view this is a very good scheme for people to join, once they have seen the benefits it can bring. It is also very adaptable for other countries to emulate, particularly in Africa.
