In Global Education Week – Voices Go Beyond Words, Hearts Go Beyond Borders

In August 2025, the eTwinning project Voices Beyond Words, Hearts Beyond Borders was registered on the European School Education Platform (ESEP). The project was founded and coordinated by English teachers Büşra Akdeniz (from Turkey) and Ivana Opačak (from Croatia), and it includes another school from Turkey and four schools from Romania, Poland, Italy and Tunisia.

The project promotes intercultural dialogue, empathy, linguistic diversity and shared human values that go beyond geographical and cultural borders. Throughout 2025/2026 students will have the opportunity to improve their language and digital skills, and become more active and open-minded global citizens through international collaboration, sharing personal perspectives on human rights, conflict, war and its consequences. The project’s goals correspond with the annual eTwinning theme Skills for Life within the European Year of Education for Digital Citizenship (2025).

The Secondary School of Economics in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, has been actively and very successfully participating in the EPAS/European Parliament Ambassador School programme for six years (teacher Ivana Opačak being the coordinator); the eTwinning School holds Erasmus Accreditation. European values are the starting point and the goal of every (extra)curricular activity – the school’s EP Junior Ambassadors embody these values every day. 

The new eTwinning project was publicly presented – on the notice board next to the school’s main entrance – during Erasmus Days (13 – 18 October 2025), whose central theme was European values: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights (under the slogan Live our values, inspire our future). On this occasion, activities from the first project module My Story, Our Values were presented.

European Day of Languages & Erasmus Days with International Partners

The first project activities were dedicated to getting to know the partners and celebrating the European Day of Languages (in September 2025) and Erasmus Days. On this occasion, students created “maps/walls/circles of human values” in English and in the languages of the participating partners – Romanian, Turkish, Croatian, Polish, Italian and Arabic.

Teacher Opačak designed and moderated the activities within the first (out of five) project modules – the students collaborated in mixed teams during September and October, and each of the seven teachers coordinated one team. The final products of all teams were gathered in the Genial.ly interactive image (HERE), demonstrating how young eTwinners share the same values despite geographical distance and linguistic and cultural differences.

In Global Education Week – Young People Celebrate Kindness & Children’s Rights

As part of the second project module Living in Conflict Zones – A Child’s Perspective, project partners organized Week 4 Peace (13 – 19 November 2025) to celebrate World Kindness Day (13 November) and World Children’s Day (20 November). 

Through collaborative activities and the video message Hope in Action, young eTwinners contributed to the celebration of Global Education Week (17 – 24 November 2025). This year’s theme of the Week (Shaping a Just, Peaceful & Sustainable Future – Hope in Action!) invites every one of us to take part in creating a vision of a better world through collective action.

Collaborative Online English Lesson & Messages of Peace

At the beginning of the second project module, on 21 October 2025, teachers and students from the partner schools held a collaborative online English lesson/workshop Living in Conflict Zones – A Child’s Perspective in order to learn (using authentic materials such as the UNICEF video When Will the Fighting Stop) about “life in conflict zones from a child’s point of view.” The online workshop was moderated by Natalia Otulak, an English teacher from Poland.

During the workshop, students analysed and evaluated textual and video content, expressed their critical opinions and feelings, reflecting on possible solutions. They used language structures for expressing empathy and vocabulary related to conflict, peace and resilience, sharing their conclusions on a collaborative Padlet wall. They suggested further activities through which they could express solidarity and support for children around the world who are suffering and dreaming of a better future.

After the online meeting, each school/national team wrote A Letter 4 Peace, expressing empathy and support for children in war-affected areas. Each team then selected one paragraph, which was turned into a song using the Suno AI application and eventually became part of the collaborative international Letter for Peace. The national letters were compiled into the e-collection Letters & Songs 4 Peace on Canva (HERE), in a special format celebrating the 20th anniversary of eTwinning. The collaborative Letter is available HERE.

In November, project partners also created a collaborative video message, Hope in Action, to mark Global Education Week (17 – 24 November 2025). Its whose annual theme Shaping a Just, Peaceful & Sustainable Future is based on the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership, which formed the backbone of the video.

Week 4 Peace (13 – 19 November 2025)

The most valuable part of the project work was sharing the collaborative digital products on project social media during the Week for Peace… along with the hope that the students’ messages would reach those who most need to hear them. The collaborative letter was sent – as a gesture of support – to the project partners in Palestine, and their response was exceptionally moving.

The Week for Peace is a symbolic initiative by young eTwinners, carrying the message: Everything begins with me, with you, with us… here and now. On World Kindness Day (13 November), students discovered how simple it is to be kind – just one gesture, one kind word is enough – and how every person is called to be part of a chain of kindness, where peace begins. On World Children’s Day (20 November), they shared the results of their project work (within Module 2) and what they had learned during the Week: Everything begins with a gesture, an act(ion) by an individual, but we all share the responsibility for building a better world (children cannot do it alone)…

Teacher Opačak got the inspiration for marking World Kindness Day in English classes from Salma Ammar, a project partner from Tunisia, whose lesson plan (on the importance and value of giving compliments) served as the basis for an open learning scenario Teaching Empathy & Kindness for 12 English lessons, published on Edutorij (at THIS link).

World Children’s Day is UNICEF’s global day of action (with children) for children, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (also adopted by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1989). This year, once again, children around the world are standing up and speaking about their lives, hopes and rights under the slogan My Day, My Rights. Children speak, and adults are the ones who must listen to them, try to understand what matters to them, and recognise where they need help…

During the Week for Peace, each day from 13 to 19 November 2025, one national Letter for Peace and one Suno-AI song were published on the project’s social media. On World Children’s Day, the collaborative Letter for Peace was shared… and “sent” to all children who need support. The young eTwinners also shared Hope (in the Hope in Action video message). On YouTube (HERE), a video was published in which young eTwinners speak about the pillars of the global world, about what matters to them, and the kind of society they want.

The project partners believe that the activities within the first two project modules have planted the seeds of cooperation, the seeds of peace… They believe these seeds will bear many fruits – new creative, collaborative activities that will connect even more strongly the voices and hearts of young people from different parts of Europe and the world.