Today we have great news from Aleksandra Zawalska-Hawel from the  Municipal Public Library in Piekary Slaskie in Poland on the project they are carrying out with their sister Kaunas County Public Library (Lithuania),  which we told you about last April, Following the footsteps of the insurgents 1863 in Lithuania!

Project of Municipal Public Library in Piekary Slaskie called „Following the footsteps of the insurgents 1863 in Lithuania” it was the joint activities of young people from Poland and Lithuania, which took place in Kaunas from 9 to 14 July 2013. In the project took involved two partner groups, each group was consists of 10 participant and two guardians representing our library and Kaunas County Public Library.

The main theme of the project was to learn more of events related to the January Uprising and history linking our nations. We participated in the City Game “Following the footsteps of the insurgents 1863” at the streets of the Old Town of Kaunas, and after the summing, we watched reconstructed by the National Film Archive silent film “The Year 1863” based on the novel “Faithful river” written by Stephen Żeromski.

We have prepared a evening of poetry, candlelit under the historical Kaunas Castle at the mouth of the Willi to the Niemen, which is the favorite walks spot of residents of Kaunas. Young people was reading poetry in Polish, Lithuanian and English, arousing positive interested of bystanders.

Also we together visited the Museum of the January Uprising in Paberžė, we visited too the burial place of the insurgents and the insurgent graves in the local cemetery. Acquired in this way, knowledge of history has become an perfect starting point for conducting the plastic workshop (partly in the open air of Raudondvaris), which effect are the twin board games about the January Uprising created by young people.

”Following the footsteps of the insurgents 1863” is a historical educational game, dynamic and exciting. We have participated in integration games and national evenings. All participants of project received a t-shirts with the emblem of the project, diplomas and commemorative coins issued to mark the 150th anniversary of the January Uprising and the album “January Uprising”.

The participants were equally engaged in all activities. Through joint participation in the project young people were to know each other, their own history and culture. Also the participant established the friendships and new contacts, and thereby the strengthening ties between young people of our countries. But the greatest success of this project is that historically distant subject, perhaps with seemingly “boring”, managed to achieve in an attractive and activating way, with the full involvement of young people at every stage of implementation.

The project was financed by the Polish-Lithuanian Youth Exchange Fund.

Beautiful photos by Justina Švedaitė, a participant of our project from Lithuania
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.579135308796316.1073741840.514331791943335&type=1

About January Uprising: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_Uprising