Meeting of Generations in Burgas

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

Platform AGORA - branch Burgas jointly with its partners Secondary School "Episkop Konstantin Preslavski" - Burgas , Bulgaria and Lüleburgaz High School, Turkey organized and held on June 06th the first "Festival of Generations" in Burgas, preceded by the International Conference "Knowledge for Generations" on June 05th, 2015.

The Festival of Generations gathered students from Secondary School "Bishop Konstantin Preslavski", Burgas and Luleburgaz High School from Turkey. The project "Festival of Generations" is co-funded by EU through the Bulgaria - Turkey IPA Cross-Border Programme (CCI number 2007CB16IPO008-2013-3-040). Students, teachers and researchers from Bulgaria and Turkey took part in the conference "Knowledge for Generations", held in the Cultural Center "Morsko Casino" in Burgas. They discussed the achieved results and exchanged valuable experience.

Official guests of the event were Mr. Mesut Gider, Deputy - Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey in Burgas and Mr. Valcho Cholakov, Governor of Burgas Region, representatives of Burgas Municipality and the Regional Education Inspectorate. "I will cooperate with all means and resources of the government administration to the new programming period of the cross-border cooperation programme staring at the end of this year", said Mr. Cholakov and called on the audience to search for unity not separation.

The students from both schools presented in Burgas the family trees they had built within the project implementation period. A total of 15 trees had been presented from Burgas region. They had researched not only their ancestors but also old Strandja families during their study visit in the region of Tcarevo and Malko Tarnovo. In the course of the study visits they interviewed and recorded family history told by the elderly people. Based on those records a Generations' Vocabulary would be compiled with words unknown for the youth and new ones for the elderly, said Mr. Martin Iliev, Principal of School "Bishop Konstantin Preslavski", Burgas.

On the second festival day at the Sea Garden in front of the Summer Stage "Ohliova" was launched the photo exhibition titled "Generations" with 30 author and archive photos. The exhibition focus is on the diverse generation touch points discovered in the process of communication and joint work on the project activities. The festival day was full of songs and dances performed by the guests from Turkey and specific for their region, the hosts from Secondary School "Bishop Konstantin Preslavski" presented their dramatization of a family story.

„The idea is to find a working mechanism allowing generations - youth and their elderly ancestors to improve their communication which would lead to exchange of values and transmission of traditions,"shared Mrs. Emilia Lissichkova, Project Manager at Platform AGORA - branch Burgas.