"Recreation Project": German-Ukrainian Student Exchange in Hannover

- The spoken word counts! –

Dear Pupils from Ukraine and from Germany, dear teachers, 

thank you for your kind invitation.

I am glad to meet you here at the Bismarckschule in Hannover. 

Your school looks very impressive with its mixture of old and new buildings. I also was very impressed by your skills on the drums! 

I hope you enjoy your stay here, dear pupils from Ukraine, with your new buddies from Germany.

I am the president of the German Commission of UNESCO. Together with the Foreign Office and the Hertie Foundation, we organise the Recreation Project.

In 2023 we welcome in total more than 200 students and teachers from Ukraine within Germany. We have already hosted a number of 150 students and teachers by now. And I am very glad to meet you from the region of Tschernihiw today here in Hannover. 

Last year, 14 pupils and 2 teachers from a destroyed UNESCO Associated School of Zhytmoyr in Ukraine formed the very first group of the project. It was a pilot project and thanks to the commitment of the German UNESCO ASPnet schools and their families it became a great success. 

We hope that you all have a very good time in Germany and with your host families. We wish you a lot of fun and recreation. But first and foremost, we hope that you feel our solidarity with you and your families.

Dear teachers, thanks for accompanying the pupils on this journey that means much more than to travel from one country to another.

Dear Mr. Frommeyer, thank you, that you make this exchange happen at your school. Since already the 1950s Bismarckschule is an active member of the network of UNESCO Associated Schools. And with this cooperation you bring the UNESCO goals to life: the understanding among nations and solidarity.

I am curious to get to know more about what you all have experienced here as part of the recreation project and I am looking forward to the conversation with you!

Thank you very much – and see you soon!