Last CGYPP workshop was dedicated to regional as well as cross-border dimension of the Czech-German relations
AMO
/ Ed. 12. 1. 2017
The third seminar of this year’s CGYPP was dedicated to regional as well as cross-border dimension of the Czech-German relations. The seminar touched topics dealing with shared historical legacy, political and social development both in Dresden and Liberec and several new trends in technological innovations. Significant part of the seminar dealt with the role of Czech-German young professionals’ network towards broad public, mainly in the Czech Republic.
An afternoon seminar in Dresden offered the participants a possibility to discuss pressing issue of migration together with local activists dealing with immediate assistance to refugees. One of them was the former director of Umweltzentrum, Stefan Mertenskötter who organizes language training and integration assistance to refugees who are coming to the city. So called “ABC Tische” organized by Umweltzentrum Dresden in cooperation with the City Museum Dresden provides an organized assistance to refugees in the very centre of Dresden. All speakers emphasized the uncertainty of refugees’ perspectives and unclear role of state services who should, according to them, arrange a sufficient assistance to people in need.
Photoalbum from the 3rd workshop
DownloadThe next day’s program in Liberec was focused on local agenda connected to this regional centre as well. The participants started with on-site visit of the Technical University of Liberec and its nanotechnology department where they observed a practical experiment depicting a various use of nanotechnologies in industry. The program continued with a guided tour through Liberec city centre’s key places of contemporary history conducted by the Living Memory (Živá paměť) NGO. The focus was given on the relevance of history for today’s city social life. The tour was luckily followed by a discussion with Petr Hubáček who leads a local initiative that aims to rescue currently closed cinema Varšava. He gave participants a lot of examples of organizing local cultural and social activities in Liberec and mentioned interaction with political representatives, too.
The internal workshop that took place during last two days of the seminar drafted a future strategy of the program’s Alumni Network. The participants agreed to target more intensely a number of local cultural and social initiatives in the Czech-German borderland and find ways of their support in terms of fundraising or promotion.
The project is organized by the Association for International Affairs (AMO) in cooperation with the European Academy of Berlin (EAB) and co-funded by the Czech German Fund for Future and Hanns Seidel Foundation Prague.
