Since 2016, the Bamboo School, Casa Asia’s intercultural and inclusive education program, has collaborated with the Education Consortium of the Barcelona City Council and the Adsis Foundation in a JUNTS program for the exchange of stories and songs among 3rd grade students from various centers in Barcelona and from a guest country every two years. In recent years JUNTS (http://junts-cooperem.blogspot.com) has been carried out with schools in Pakistan and India thanks to the work of Bamboo School educators from these countries. This year Deepti Golani encouraged 6 schools in urban and rural areas of Rajasthan in India to participate.
JUNTS is an exchange project for stories for the first year and songs for the following year. Indian children have written their versions of traditional country stories and have sent them to the Catalan schools of the project that have illustrated them, while third-grade primary school children here have also made versions Catalan traditional stories and children from India has illustrated them. Along the way, schools in both countries have learned a lot from the other country and its cultures and societies through educational workshops led by Deepti herself, who has also made contacts, translation and mediation and encouraged children and adults in the project.
Very happy with the result, which adds to the success of the program last year regarding Pakistan and three years ago it was China’s turn. Next year, always in the second year of the program, the exchange will be made with songs and every other year a bilingual storybook and a songbook will be published and distributed among the participating schools in Catalonia and the guest country.
