SUSTAIN project has finally reached its end. The VI and last partners’ meeting of the project was held in Palermo from 23rd-26th November 2013. In this occasion, the partners evaluated each phase of the project and planned the remaining activities. They put emphasis on the organization of the SUSTAIN Biennial, which will be running in Istanbul from 23rd-30th November 2013. During the meeting, the partners went to Ubuntu, the International Centre of Culture in Palermo, which was also an active presence in the project for the testing of educational activities at local level.
Ubuntu is an association which was born in 2006, in the old city of Palermo, a context inhabited by several families with a high social deprivation.
The word “Ubuntu” in Bantu means “ humanity towards others”. “Ubuntu” stems from a sub-Saharan philosophy which focuses on loyalty and the importance of mutual exchange and support among people. The Ubuntu Centre provides a socio-educative support to those children with migration backgrounds or suffering from social deprivation. For these reasons, we found it appropriate to involve Ubuntu in our project and to make the partners acquainted with it.
On Thursday 24, Patrizia Pappalardo and Claudia Moriniello, together with the volunteers and the children of Ubuntu, welcomed the SUSTAIN team with a presentation of the Centre and telling everybody of its experiences in the territory. The meeting at Ubuntu, among home-made cakes and inquiring looks of cheerful children, was a very important and enriching occasion for the partners of SUSTAIN, because it allowed them to approach an organization which turns into practice some of the key themes of Education for Sustainable Development.