Closing the Gap - How to Build a Bridge between two Worlds

Mia Weidl about the idea and her experiences working on a project that aims more cultural tolerance between Austria and Senegal

We, the Team of „DIISOO – Association to Promote Cultural Exchange“ have the aim to create space where people can meet and get to know each other. Therefore Austrian and Senegalese people will encounter to share individual experiences and extend their personal knowledge - organised and accompanied by DIISOO, a non-profit organisation for the publics benefit.

All the members walked different paths until we met, got to know each other better and started the project DIISOO. With those different personalities we can bring together a grand repertoire on backgrounds, which helped us to build an association which considers various perspectives and points of view. Thus, we overcame all upcoming difficulties so far.

Workshop September

In September we’ll reach our first big goal - we managed to establish a workshop in Senegal where more then 30 Senegalese and Austrians will work together. We’ll meet in a village about 100 km south-east of Dakar, the capital city of Senegal. In the village “Kër Sara Badiane” we’ll spend as much time as possible together to get to know each other and share our cultural qualities as well as our experiences of life. We want to get understanding and access in “different” culture – as a matter of course, on both sides.

Vision

Due to the promotion of cultural exchange, we want to bring all participants to open up their ways of thinking and expand their minds through cross-cultural competences. We, the Team of DIISOO, see ourselves as a platform, where contacts arise and get carried forward to spread experiences to a wider community.

Starting now, we want to win more and more educators from Austria and Senegal to join DIISOO, our workshops and events. With the help of those, we can assure that our vision will spread.

We really appreciate that our association is growing from day to day and there are already many institutions that share our ways of thinking and want to join our project. Even the “University of Teacher Education Styria” wants to offer classes where we can introduce DIISOO.

What can you do?

First of all, we would be happy if you visit our homepage www.diisoo.at or join us on Facebook http://goo.gl/9U3gF!

There you can find further Information about our work and read our latest news.

Get a member of DIISOO and share your ideas and experiences with us! Contact us via our homepage or write us an e-mail to office@diisoo.at. Also let us know, if you’re interested in our newsletter!

And even if you don’t want to join us, don’t worry - just always keep your mind open for the new