On the 15th of April the Anna Lindh Foundation organized and facilitated an Intercultural Citizenship Education Virtual Exchange. The Exchange brought together educators in the formal and non-formal sectors who participated to the Regional Training for Trainers on Intercultural Citizenship Education organised by the ALF in November 2019 in Nicosia, Cyprus. 

The aim of the exchange was to offer educators a space to encourage discussion and reflection on how the current pandemic has affected the work of educators and to share ideas on how the pandemic’s consequences on intercultural exchanges/dialogue can be minimized.

The majority of participants considered the crisis both an opportunity and a threat because it encourages everyone to be creative and to develop new ways to reach people through virtual exchanges. The debate developed around challenges that can be categorized into three main areas: diversity and mutual perceptions; mobility limitations undermining fundamental freedoms; rethinking of Intercultural Citizenship Education. A key point of the discussion was the sudden shift from face-to-face to remote learning shedding light on difficulties adjusting to virtual formats, reaching target groups due to unequal access to the internet among disadvantaged and marginalized groups, obtaining funds and developing online training and interactive sessions within an unpredictable timeframe for the current crisis. Nevertheless, almost all the educators concurred that virtual exchange can help sustaining intercultural education across the region and youth education and a powerful tool to counter the fueling of stereotypes in the EuroMed region.