Students in different countries want to get in contact with each other to improve language skills and learn about cultures. Due to Corona, cross-cultural exchanges are additionally difficult while openness for new perspectives is crucial especially for young people. In this context, encountering students from other countries can help to increase tolerance and awareness for other ways of life while reducing prejudices. This project benefits students of age 12-16 at German and foreign countries’ schools. 

The Hamburg hub identifies and connects Hamburg’s schools’ teachers with teachers from other schools in foreign countries and organizes the format of the virtual letter exchange. It discusses and manages expectations on both sides and takes care of the organization.

The project aims to have a long-term impact as it could result in zoom video calls or even physical exchanges or other formats to further support youth’s knowledge about and tolerance for other countries’ geography, history, cultures, political systems, religions and further regional topics. It further intends to increase interest in learning languages.

The hub will measure the number of mobilized students and interest of participating students to engage in further exchanges.

So far, partnerships with schools and youth organizations from Peru, Bolivia, and Israel in place.