Entreculturas has presented its new education campaign for the next three years, CITY PLANET, at the 2009 AULA Fair. With City Planet, Entreculturas wants to support schools in implementing education programmes on intercultural, gender and citizenship issues. "The goal is to strengthen, through education, the role of the youth in civil society so that with their participation they may transform reality and achieve a fairer world" says Irene Ortega, responsible for the Education Development Department at Entreculturas.

City Planet will work with REDEC, an on line social network platform specialized in education for solidarity. Its goal is to facilitate communication, the exchange of experiences and the participation work in the education community. REDEC is made up of six portals directed to each specific public that makes up the education community and a seventh portal for on-line training. "The new information technologies are seen as a necessary tool in Entreculturas´ work to support the Eighth Millennium Goal, developing a global partnership for development. In the global context in which we live, Internet is an effective way to involve society in the change of realities" adds Carolina Moreno, responsible for New Technologies at Entreculturas.

During the next few months, REDEC will be introduced in the Latin American countries where Entreculturas works: "we want this tool to be used in all education contexts that we work with, from the rural schools of the Andes to the African Refugee Camps". REDEC aims to strengthen North-South relations and contribute to their mutual development.

The City Planet Campaign is financed by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation Development (AECID) as explained by Esperanza Muñoz -from AECID- " it is an initiative very much in line with the new Director Plan for Cooperation in addition to the good work of Entreculturas, one of the big organizations at international level specialized in education and with whom we have been working for the past 10 years".

  Esperanza Muñoz, Irene Ortega and Agustín Alonso

One campaign, three years, three concepts

Towards intercultural relations

During the 2009-2010 school year, City Planet will focus on intercultural relations. We live in a multicultural society. In this context, Entreculturas proposes an intercultural education to build relations based don dialogue, encounter, respect and mutual learning from different cultures. The objective is that the students may get to know, understand and value their own culture and the culture of others in order to build an intercultural way of living at a local and global level.

Towards equality between men and women

For the school year 2010-2011, the main issue will be gender equality. The concept of gender helps to understand that there are no biological reasons to justify the social inequality between men and women. This inequality is a consequence of ideas and habits that have given way to this discrimination, learnt practices that can be changed. An education based on equality can help each person to develop fully and freely their values, potentials, preferences and expectations. From there we may build societies in which men and women may share responsibilities and rights equally.

Towards commitment with the common good

Finally, during the school year 2011-2012 we will work on the concept of citizenship. Entreculturas believes that it is necessary to educate in order to carry out a citizenship committed to the common good, understanding it as a good belonging to all the human family. A citizenship that looks for justice and solidarity among all people of the planet and future generations.
The three concepts, intercultural relations, gender and citizenship, are the basic axes for acquiring social and citizenship abilities in the current global context.

REDEC, weaving education networks in Spain

CITY PLANET will reach the education community through REDEC, an on line social network platform specialized on education for solidarity. Its goal is to facilitate communication, the exchange of experiences and the participation work in the education community. REDEC is made up of six portals directed to each specific public that makes up the education community: teachers, families, education centres, boys and girls youth under 18 years old and youth over 18 years old. Finally there is a seventh portal for on line training.

In these portals, users will have access to news, visit and create image galleries, participate in forums or blogs to share experiences or information related to solidarity education. "REDEC is created at the demand of many teachers who are alone when starting solidarity channels in their schools" says Irene, "now, with this platform, teachers will be able to know each other, share their achievements and difficulties and add efforts and motivations to achieve the social transformation they are working for".
This is why Entreculturas, taking into account the global framework in which we live, thinks it is essential to establish social networks to encourage encounter and common development in such important areas as education.