Teachers from close to 60 schools from Vienna and Bratislava met at the Danube Twins Teachers Forum on 13 September in the Vienna International Centre to jointly discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to prepare contributions for the
"Stand up, Take Action" campaign in support of the goals.
The forum was organized by the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) Vienna, the Vienna School Board and the Bratislava region, to provide a platform for exchange and networking between the schools. Sonja Wintersberger, Deputy to the Director of UNIS, underlined in her opening remarks: "Where does people's knowledge of international topics begin? In school," and therefore working together with teachers was of essential important to the UN's public information work.
The Teachers Forum is part of a wider project by the cities of Vienna and Bratislava called EdTWIN, that supports mutual language education, school partnerships and student exchange between the schools, as project coordinators Petra Feichtinger (Vienna School Board) and Jana Zápalová (Bratislava Region) explained. Good cooperation amongst immediate neighbours is the basis for any effort to support regions elsewhere in the world, Stephan Heisler of the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations (Vienna) emphasized.
The participating teachers are organizing events at their schools in Vienna and Bratislava as part of the global 'Stand Up' - 'Make Noise for the MDGs' campaign 17-19 September. In the run-up to the Millennium Development Goals Review Summit 20-22 September at United Nations headquarters, citizens across the globe can join the "Stand up" campaign to tell their leaders to keep their promises to end poverty.
The events that are being planned at the schools in Vienna and Bratislava range from a primary school action art project, essays, graphic design and posters, to synchronized mobile phone ringing as well as an MDG march by the students. Providing for a learning experience on the MDGs for the participating school children and an exchange between them were important considerations besides contributing to the larger event.
For more pictures please got to
