Roman, Romania Chapter

The Young Generation members of PTPI’s Roman, Romania Chapter are happy to announce their project proposal has been approved by the National Agency. It is included under Action 1.1 – Youth exchange, of the Youth in Action Programme run by the EU.
The project is called ”Ready, steady... go for a healthy life!” It will take place in Piatra Neamt, the recently named green city of Romania and consist of organizing a multilateral youth exchange August 19-28. The main theme of this project is maintaining a healthy lifestyle in
a problematic and stressful environment. The activities will last nine days, and the participants will be 30 young people who represent six non-governmental associations from Romania, Lithuania, Turkey, Malta, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. The Bulgarian and Czech
Republic youth are also PTPI members, while the others are partners from different European exchanges.
The activities will mime a healthy way of living. There will be debates related to this topic, and a lot of physical outdoor events. There also will be a full day in the countryside, where everybody will take part in rural activities and taste natural and healthy products. The final day will be dedicated to putting together a Healthy Life Guide written in seven languages (six of the participants’ languages plus English). The guide will present healthy activities that can be undertaken in the participants’ countries.
All of the activities will be achieved through non-formal methods of education andwill involve every team in the organization and implementation stages.
Andrei Corduneanu, Youth Coordinator

Pécs, Hungary Student Chapter

We enjoyed every moment of our trip to Croatia. Our hosts made it unforgettable with their warm welcome and extraordinary hospitality. All the programs were great,and we were happy not only because we learned more about Croatian people/language/history, but also because we made true friends there. On the way back, we were thinking very hard with the students if there was any way we could return all the love and affection we got from Marina, the students and their parents. We can hardly wait to welcome them here to our homes in Pécs and spend some more time with them.
April 28, we took part in a special picnic. It was organized by the American Corner of Pécs to celebrate Arbor Day, a U.S. holiday that encourages individuals and
groups to plant trees. We participated in different programs,all of which had a connection with the environment and trees. These programs included planting plants that we could take home afterwards and making our own environmental friendly by using shopping bags with different patterns.
Later that day, we had snacks at the organic buffet, where we tasted different kinds of healthy foods made from 100 percent natural ingredients. After the meal, we grabbed crayons and started to decorate the walls with drawings of trees.
Finally, we listened to an interesting presentation about environmental consciousness. Our presenter raised the issue of waste and recycling, and offered different solutions for the problem. She showed us examples of environmental friendly packages and discussed three different ways of packaging milk and dairy products.
She explained the first type of packaging needed more than 300 years to degrade, and the second had three layers and was very difficult to recycle. The third, which she suggested we buy, was the most environmentally friendly; it had two layers and could be recycled easily. She also talked about the problem of using plastic bags for shopping. To sum up, we got handy tips and some useful advice about how to be green and what products to buy if we go shopping.
Szilvia Kázmér, Adult Advisor

Oroslavje, Croatia (The Eagles) Student

After the exchange with PTPI’s Pécs Hungary Student Chapter in March we coverage in the newspaper Zagorski List and we were featured in the news on Radio Hrvatsko Zagorje – Krapina and on its Internet page. We also attended a talk with a representative from the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb.
Marina Krsnik, Adult Advisor

Kurchatov, Russia (Friends Meeting Friends)SC

This spring, our chapter organized two pastry sales to raise money for our service work and cultural programming.
March 12, we raised approximately $100 USD to cover the cost of our excursion to the ancient
town of Rylsk. April 28, we raised approximately $100 USD to purchase a present for a World War II Veteran and to congratulate him on Victory Day. The rest of money was used to buy presents for visiting American educators and students, as well as to put on a Russian tea party for them.
March 25, it was announced that our adult advisor Elena Tarlovskaya had become a finalist in the 2009 Teachers to Teachers Programme administered by the American Councils. This means next February she will stay in the USA for four weeks, during which she will take part in a professional development programme at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana USA.
March 26-April 5, our student Natalia Durneva represented our country at Peace Camp in Jordan. Natalia did her best to use this opportunity to make new friends, to help others to get a deeper insight into Russian culture, and at the same time she learned so much from other participants. She developed her communication, leadership and conflict management skills, and after her return, shared this valuable, unforgettable experience with the whole community. April 21, an article featuring Natalia Duryea’s participation in Peace Camp 2008 appeared in a regional newspaper.
April 19, our chapter was extremely busy and excited. A group of three professors and six students from Mount Union College, Ohio USA, arrived for a friendly visit to our school. All the chapter members were engaged in the preparation and in the cultural programme on that day. Bogdan, our first chapter president, served as an interpreter and was responsible for the excursion around the school. Elena Tarlovskaya and Tamara Burovnikova accompanied the guests all the time. Natalia Durneva, Andrey Kholodov, Roman Bysov and Vitaly Grebennikov were responsible for the tea party and the festive concert “Russia-USA: the meeting of two cultures.” Roman and Vitaly also worked as cameramen.
With the $100 USD that was raised, we organized a wonderful tea party with a real Russian tea urn and had a special cake baked; it said “Welcome to Kurchatov.”
During the concert, chapter members made a wonderful and striking presentation about Russian cultural heritage, Russian character and the mysterious Russian soul. May 19, there was a report on TV that featured the visit of the American students and teachers who came to visit our school. The report was watched by the town community, so everybody knows our chapter is active in establishing contacts with educators, trainers and students from the USA.

April 24-26, our chapter successfully participated in Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) 2009. Our members carried out three projects: “Two hours English-reading rules tuition,, “Planting trees - Green Belt Project” and the “Cross cultural awareness project - Languages of the
United Europe.” April 24, our Adult Advisor gave a fiveminute interview via Skype to László Bognár, who works for the Foundation for Democratic Youth, the Hungarian NLA of GYSD.
April 25, the Foundation for Democratic Youth aired a ten-hour live radio show about Hungarian events and GYSD. The show was aired through a community radio station and the Internet. During the interview, Elena described our GYSD projects. It was a great honor for our chapter to highlight our activities on the global level!
May 19, to attract new members and make our chapter activities more visible, we participated in the regional festival of youth movements “Childhood without borders.” We presented our Pen Friends Club experience, our participation in the PTPI School and Classroom Program, as well as our achievements in cross-cultural interaction. Our material was highly regarded by the selection committee! Our Pen Friends Club was awarded the cup and the title of “Peace-keeper.” Our students greatly enjoyed the title “Peace keeper,” along with the diploma and the cup! Our efforts to promote peace and our steps to make friends with the world have been recognized and appreciated at a regional level!
Elena Tarlovskaya, Adult Advisor

Kiev, Ukraine (School 323) Student Chapter

February 26, we organized the city conference “Education as the main means of development,” during which we discussed the problems of modern education. Our students and guests from different city schools formed four groups and translated a poem from English to Ukrainian or Russian. Here is this poem:
Learning a Language
Is like doing a jigsaw puzzle of a million pieces
With a picture that keeps changing.
It’s like getting lost in a foreign city without a map.
It’s like playing tennis without a ball,
Like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It’s being an acrobat with a broken leg,
An actor without a script,
A carpenter without a saw,
A storyteller without a middle or an end.
But then gradually it’s like being out in the early morning
With the mists lifting.
It’s like a chink of light under a door,
Like finding the glove you were looking for,
Catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
Getting an unlooked-for present, exchanging a smile.
And then one day it’s like riding a bicycle very fast downhill.

Olivia McMahon – Scotland

Each group represented its variant of the translation.
March 24-26, our students took part in the fourth regional conference “UN model,” in which all participants imitated the work of the United Nations. Our high school represented two countries: India and Russia. Our students expressed these countries’ views on the international economic crisis and ways out of it. Many schools from all over Kiev took part in this conference.
April 9, our school took part in a meeting devoted to the future development of school activities, which was organized by the Ukrainian Movement “Teachers for peace and understanding.”.
We also took part in Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). Information and photos about our efforts were sent to PTPI World Headquarters, and now they are available on PTPI’s GYSD Web site.
May 27, we met a teacher from Scotland named David Stolls. He told our students and teachers about his program of teaching English in many countries via the Internet.
Nataliya Tsareva, Adult Advisor

Kiev, Ukraine (Kyivites) Student Chapter

PTPI’s Kiev Ukraine Student Chapter had an exciting and memorable spring! We were involved in so many interesting activities. March 1-3, we presented the project “School of the Future” in Budapest at the International Conference of European Schools with the title “Challenges in Schools”. This conference was arranged by the British Council of Europe. We used the opportunity to present our international programs and promote the activities of PTPI. Our presentation met great interest. We hope that we will have new partners in Europe soon!
March 13, at our general meeting, we proclaimed a new initiative in Ukraine that is called “Youth against Corruption as an Educational Cultural Project.” We have got support from 4 international movements: Intercultural Caravan “INTERKULTURO”, international media movement “Pure Channels”, “Nabat 2020”and the international movement “in Support of UNESCO and UN resolutions”. The initiative aims at getting rid of the corruption in our society to protect our students from it in their future adult lives. This new activity was launched at a round table meeting with the title “The events of corruption in our society and how to be protected from them.” We shared PowerPoint presentations on this theme and held lessons in law at the schools. We plan to hold science conferences and forums for students as well as poster contests and photo exhibitions. Together with PTPI’s Kiev University Chapter, we will hold the first science practical conference for students on September 10 where we will present projects on this topic.
April 22 – 26, PTPI’s Kiev Ukraine Student together with the Kiev University and Adult Chapters held the Second International Language Festival “The Ecology of Communication” in Kiev with the aim of presenting languages and cultures of a variety of nations. The event was organized in cooperation with embassies and cultural centers of 25 countries and took place in the assembly hall of the University for Economics and Law in Kiev. Participants were school and university students,
PTPI members, scientific and teaching staff members of Linguistics, Country Studies, History and Culturology departments, representatives of nations, nationalities and ethnic groups, official representatives of UNESCO, foreign embassies and diasporas, researchers, artists, travelers, journalists as well as other native- and non-native speaking admirers of national and ethnic languages and cultures.
The festival also offered extraordinary insights in the practice and use of the different languages and informed about language territories. On April 24, the representatives of cultural centers had the opportunity to exchange experiences and best practices concerning the organization of international festivals. On April 25, participants joined the ethnic day of the earth, which was celebrated with concerts, the artistic festival “ethno sound”, national dances as well as a “living children gallery” that invited youngsters to create their own masterpieces as a language
of friendship. The third International Language Festival is planned for 2010.
Anna Chuiko, Adult Advisor

Khmelnitsky, Ukraine Student Chapter

In April, our members took part in the action “Hear all.” We helped students to collect money to help purchase medical equipment for the city hospital.
April 8, the 15-16-year-old students went outdoors to work on the school grounds. They planted bushes, dug trees, gathered dry leaves and cleared away rubbish.
May 11, we conducted a meeting on the topic “Result of activity of the student chapter, reelections and presentation of activity to new members.”
May 16, we conducted an exhibition of pets with the name “My four-footed friend.” Members brought their pets from home, and they were exhibited near the high schools. There were dogs, cats, hamsters and guinea pigs on display. Everyone who visited the exhibition gave some money to the donation box. It was decided the money collected should go to a local animal refuge.
May 22-23, we conducted the “European Fair of Creation and Innovations” for the representatives of Euro Clubs in three regions. More than 30 delegates came from different towns and villages. We presented the activities of our chapter and conducted the project “Iranian Children.” We will communicate with the organizers of the project and send our gifts.
May 23, our members celebrated Europe Day in the city of Ternopol. This event is described on a Web site of our high school.
We have created a booklet, in which we present the activities of our chapter for 2008-2009. Our children will gather paper on May 21. After gathering money, dinners will be cooked and handed out at the local homeless shelter.
Svetlana Shengilevich, Adult Advisor