External Communication in Practice
Antonio (Interviewer): Hello everyone, we are today with the A2K organization representatives (Kasia 1 and Kasia 2) to talk about what they do and see how all the people can get involved in this organization.
Antonio (Interviewer): So firstly, I want to say thank you for joining our conversation and I am going directly on the interview.
Kasia 1 and Kasia 2: Thank you for the invitation and we are glad to be here and talk about our organization.
Antonio(Interviewer): Can you tell us about your latest projects that are done on the topic of Peacebuilding and Reconciliation?
Kasia 1: Sure, we have done projects about peacebuilding and reconciliation lately. I am talking about the project that I manage so Kasia (2) is going to tell more about her project. We have been doing Youth exchanges at different high schools in Poland. This has been a great project because high school students have seen how the other high schools are, how different are the cultures from one city to another, and how different are youngsters from each other. Also, for them has been a good opportunity to learn new things, make new friends, cooperate with each other, build bridges between cities and have new ideas on different topics.
Antonio(Interviewer): I am surprised actually because I have never seen something like that before and as you are saying, it looks like a great opportunity to high school students. What about you Kasia (2)?
Kasia 2: So my project consists of an international essay competition done In some countries. We have shared the call and the topic which is (The role of youth on peacebuilding and reconciliation) and we now are accepting the essays from Poland and all partner countries. Our target group also is high school students because they are at an age that they can start to make a big change in their communities after finish their high school and be independent.
Antonio(Interviewer): Hmm, it looks like such a nice idea to get the youngsters of all these countries engaged with this topic. I am wondering Kasia 1, how this project will continue and how the other first-year students can get involved in this project in the future.
Kasia 1: That is a good point. After getting such great feedback from the first project, we are going to expand it on more high schools in Poland to get involved more people and all the high school students are obliged to apply for this on the call that we send to the high schools that are involved in the project.
Antonio(Interviewer): That’s good news then for all the high school students that want to apply on this project if they are on one of these high schools. What about your project Kasia 2, how do you think that it is going to be because you said that you are collecting now the essays and it has not finished yet.
Kasia 2: I think that it is going to have a great finish because now that we are speaking we have around 115 essays from all the countries and the call is open for another 4 days and we expect to have more than 150 essays. We then are going to evaluate the essays and select the ones that we think will be good for the book because I forgot to mention that all the selected essays will be printed on a book and 10 of them will have prizes. We think that this is a good way to spread the high school students' opinions about this topic and we hope to make it a tradition every year with other topics that we will think may have an impact on the people who write and read.
Antonio(Interviewer): Good to hear that, I am impressed how many high school students have written and are writing about this essay because is not a topic that everyone talks about in everyday life and that is amazing. So I see that your organization does such good projects with peacebuilding and reconciliation but I have the last question for you both, do you think that these projects help people to change their mindset about the opinions and things that are connected with this topic?
Kasia 2: We did not come here just to share our work but we came here because we believe depending on the indicators that we are changing mindsets by including young people in this kind of project. They do more critical thinking, face other realities, and a lot of their activities that affect their thinking and behavior about this topic. So we believe so strongly that we are doing something good for all the people affected by these projects.
Antonio(Interviewer): Okay then, the only thing I have to say now is: Thank you!- for being on this interview and for sharing your work with us. I wish you luck with other projects in the future and have a nice week.
Kasia 1 & 2: Thank you so much for inviting us, it was a pleasure. Have a nice week too.
Note: The interview was done by the participants during the activity focused on external communication.
