OSCE-supported Building Bridges Fund presents 2018 grants on promoting interethnic understanding in schools | WPN World People News

The OSCE-supported Building Bridges Fund has announced its annual grants to municipalities, schools, students, teachers and parents. The grants are used to organize activities that bring together students from all communities, who attend schools with different languages of instruction.

Launched in 2014, the Fund is a joint effort by the Ministry of Education and Science and the OSCE Mission to Skopje. Its aim is to increase interaction, understanding and integration among students of different communities through innovative approaches.

During the presentation of the 2018 Building Bridges Fund grants, the Minister of Education and Science, Renata Deskoska, said: “Our aim is to improve the interaction between students who follow the curriculum in different languages, to promote the integration of students who belong to different ethnic communities. This is done with the help of joint curricular and extracurricular activities so as to create an environment with improved inclusiveness and interethnic integration, where diversity will be respected.”

“Students learn to create value out of diversity through joint activities,” said the Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje, Ambassador Nina Suomalainen. “The OSCE Mission to Skopje will continue to help new generations make new connections through the Building Bridges Fund. So far more than 27,000 students from over 100 schools have benefited from the Fund.”

Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe