In March 2024, for the third year running, Unity Foundation took part in the Aline Mayrisch High School’s “project week”, a week dedicated to the exploration of extra-curricular themes. This year, collaborations with various teachers enabled us to run workshops with five different classes: a “classic” curriculum class, a sports class, a general curriculum class, and two classes welcoming newcomers to Luxembourg (known as ACCU and CLIJA classes). The aim of the week, chosen by the teachers, was to strengthen bonds between students, encourage empathy and mutual listening.

To do this, we used two teaching kits: “Who am I and what is my place in the world?” and “Resilience and Collaboration” and explored the themes of justice, privilege, choice, resilience and collaboration. The various classes took part in numerous art activities, visits to local associations and service projects.

In all, four teachers, two Unity Foundation volunteer facilitators and two young student interns, plus our young volunteer and the project manager, ran the various workshops during the week. 

We often use short videos to deepen the themes covered during the week. However, another model of reflection that has proved effective is the use of inspirational short stories. These stories deliver clear messages to young people, enabling them to visualize the themes and ideas shared through simple case studies, and to refer to them easily. What’s more, they are an excellent way of reinforcing language learning in a fun and enriching way.

The young people were given different responsibilities at different times of the week, however modest, to manage an activity or a simple task during a workshop. This enables them to develop their creativity, team decision-making, organizational skills and oral expression.

Throughout the week, students were divided into groups according to their preferences, and prepared activities and a presentation in line with the week’s themes. The cooking group prepared lunch for the whole class on the first day, and we spent the afternoon at the park doing the sports and nature activities of the other two groups. Students picked up litter in the park to show their respect for nature. 

Service projects are a major component of our week. The class participating in the whole week was divided into three large groups to tackle the sustainable development themes that interested them most: Poverty, Peace and Justice, and the Environment. 

The poverty group began by learning about the poverty situation in Luxembourg through a documentary made by the Stëmm vun der Strooss, and prepared drawings to give away, as well as interviews with homeless people. In sub-groups, the youngsters then went out into the streets of the city to meet homeless people and interview passers-by.

The Peace and Justice group, after exploring the theme of peace and identifying ways to apply it around them, prepared various games to get to know the students in the CLIJA class and build friendships between them. The two groups shared their cultures with dance and music, games and the sharing of traditional Eritrean dishes, prepared by students from the CLIJA class!

The third Environment group visited Bamhaus in the morning to learn about the importance of community gardens. They discovered the difference between natural seeds and seeds artificially created in laboratories. Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to plant seeds themselves and brought back a few plants for the school garden. They also visited local fair trade stores to learn how to buy more consciously. 

At the same time, a second class of newcomers prepared various games to help students discover their ten cultures, their language and their countries, with the aim of better understanding and appreciating the diversity that surrounds them. Activities included a stand on different alphabets, one on language recognition and another on countries and flags. 

On Friday, the sports class and the ACCU class collaborated on a Capoeira workshop, combining singing, music and traditional Brazilian martial dance. This activity was greatly appreciated. 

To conclude this wonderful week, the students prepared a show for their parents, combining the sketches they had created during the week, videos, art projects, and a poem. The show was also a way of channelling the students’ energies towards a final goal and passing on their experiences and learning through drama, poetry, dance and drawing, answering a question explored throughout the week: “Who am I and what’s my place in the world?”.

Not only did the class emerge more united, but the students’ attitudes towards their environment changed too. To the question, “How will you continue to make an impact around you?“, we read the following: 

“By being more engaged in the world”

“Being more aware of the people around me”

“Being kind and patient”

“I’m going to try to open myself up to different people”

“By helping those in need, without expecting anything in return”

“Being courageous”

Exchanges with parents were also very rich in realizing the impact of the week on young people in their homes. Commitment, reflection and expanded awareness were the key words we heard from the parents. In particular, the mother of one of the young interns described the effect of the training and responsibilities given to her daughter during the week: her attentiveness, serenity and ability to communicate calmly and attentively with her family had visibly improved. 

Finally, the class teachers summed up their experience: “Very well organized workshops from Unity Foundation, energy, motivation and commitment from the trainers”.

Weekly workshops continued until the end of the year with two classes, and were mainly run by young UF volunteers studying at the high school, accompanied by the teacher and UF!

We would like to express our gratitude to the teachers of the five classes for their collaboration and commitment throughout the week. We would also like to thank our UF volunteers, as well as our three invaluable interns, who demonstrated their maturity and resilience during this intensive week. They confirm to us the potential and key role that young people can and want to play, when we give them the chance! We hope to repeat the experience next year!