AIPD is pleased to announce that EKO “Entrepreneurship and Social Economy Group with Maat Association- member organizations of IAPD- implements a long-term project entitled “SOLIDinEDU”. The project aims to promote equality, social cohesion, and active citizenship through education with the participation of young people, experts, and civil society organizations from five Euro-Mediterranean countries (Egypt, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Bulgaria).
The project aims to provide young participants from the five participating countries with the basic knowledge and skills required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all”. This leads to achieving appropriate and effective educational outcomes over the coming years, as well as enabling the participated countries to draw on the expertise and capacities to benefit from the expertise of developed countries in the field of education by allowing participants to exchange ideas with experienced civil society actors and education experts, said Ayman Okail, President of Maat.
Also Kitty Panourgia, president of EKO, highlighted that the aim of the project which ensures equal access to quality and affordable education for women and men, achieving gender equality in education and ensuring equal access to all levels of education for vulnerable groups, as well as to ensure that all project participants acquire all the knowledge and skills needed to support realizing sustainable development.This can be done by various ways, including education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, and gender equality, promoting a culture of peace, rejecting violence, global citizenship, and promoting cultural diversity.
Eliana Vasileiou, project manager in EKO, mentioned that the project provides participants with the skills, values, and attitudes that citizens require to lead productive lives, make informed decisions and assume active roles locally and globally in addressing and resolving global challenges, through education for sustainable development and education for global citizenship, including peace and human rights education, as well as intercultural education and education for international understanding.
Mennatullah Bakr, Head of the International Human Rights Mechanisms at Maat, who is responsible for implementing the project in Egypt, explained that education plays a key role in establishing a culture of acceptance and instilling the principles of the Paris Declaration for inclusive education for all children and young people.
Bakr added that Maat’s international HR Mechanisms unit will share all the stages with UN HR mechanisms to receive the recommendations of the UN experts to ensure that the fourth goal of the Sustainable Development Goals is achieved.
Stelios Arvanitidis, head of the Greek youth team, added that participants will discuss the outcomes and recommendations of the project at an international conference, attended by young people, experts from each country, and officials from the European Union, as well as specialists in education.
