|
Reinhard Eckert came originally as an intern to the Technology for Peace project which was implemented by the Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute in 2003 and he then continued as Leonardo Fellow and then as full-time associate for Everybody’s Song.
Short bio
Reinhard holds an MA degree in educational science and special/therapeutic pedagogies from the University of Vienna. He has previously been working at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna and in educational and social projects in Albania, Croatia, Romania and Serbia.
Taking into account his rich experiences in the civil society sector in several countries, we did not hesitate to invite him to work with us. Reinhard joined CNTI on 1 June 2006 and will remain as an employee of CNTI also after the termination of his Leonardo scholarship on 31 May 2007.
Contributions to the organization
Reinhard has originally mainly been involved in the work of the Youth Promoting Peace, the Civil Society and Future Affairs Unit and the Alternative Media Initiative teams. His tasks and responsibilities are summarised as follows:
- Programme developer of international projects related to education and youth work for human rights, peace and the promotion of diversity
- Developer and project manager of the international youth project Everybody's Song - Music as a tool for the promotion of diversity and intercultural understanding (www.everybodys-song.net) (December 2006 – May 2008)
- Co-coordinator of the bi-communal radio program Talk of the Island
- Facilitator of the Youth Promoting Peace and the Technology for Peace projects
Reinhard was the first associate of Future Worlds Center who had entirely organised his own funding for a whole year and successfully developed a large-scale international project Everybody’s Song already during his first weeks at our office. He has significantly contributed to a range of projects:
- Extending EU Citizenship to the Eastern End of Europe: Reinhard has co-edited the second issue of the newsletter for this EU project and has developed the response tree and compiled a major part of the text for an Automated Call Center informing EU citizens about their rights.
- Talk of the Island: Reinhard served as one of the coordinators of this bicommunal radio programme funded by the United States Institute of Peace from August 2006 to February 2007. He assisted in developing the project website, prepared the programme analysis, project evaluation as well as the final report.
- Everybody’s Song: The general aim of this large scale international youth project with a total budget of 200.670,45 Euro funded by the European Commission and the European Cultural Foundation was to reflect on the role of music in intercultural understanding and to identify ways on how to utilise it in youth work. It involved youth organisations from five different South East European countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Greece and Serbia.
In the first half of 2007, Reinhard as the general project coordinator has accomplished the following:
- Preparation, implementation and evaluation of an international contact making seminar and training on intercultural learning and project development in Ohrid, FYR Macedonia for 28 participants from 6 different countries
- Development of the project logo, leaflet and the first draft of the project website
- Securing a co-funding grant of 20.000,00 Euro by the European Cultural Foundation
- Contact making seminar (CMS) “Europeans meet in Caucasus”, Tbilisi, Georgia, 26 April – 1 May 2007: Together with the Youth Association DRONI from Georgia Reinhard organized a contact making seminar in the context of the YOUTH programme of the European Commission. The CMS brought together 20 participants from 5 EU countries and 5 Eastern European and Caucasus countries that developed more than 20 ideas for joint follow up projects.
Reinhard has also supported the team in the preparation of several grant applications to the European Commission and the Anna Lindh Foundation:
- Safer Internet
- Verstehst? - Got it? – Chápeš´? Jasan! – Κατάλαβες; - Anladın mı?” - Mutual Understanding and Communication as a challenge and chance for young people in the European Union
- Mediterranean Youth Club for Technology and Cooperation
- 2008 is ours – Euromed Youth Campaign for Intercultural Dialogue