Press release dated January 26, 2014
Within the framework of the Programma “Pythagoras Mundus,” forty students from Iraqi Kurdistan will arrive in Calabria, precisely in the historic village of Diamante. The “Pythagoras Mundus” Program, created and coordinated by the Is.Ca.P.I. (Calabrian Institute of International Policies), in Calabria, finds application thanks to the decisive action of the Calabria Region, which with the Councillor for Culture, Prof. Mario Caligiuri has worked in creating the territorial synergies vital to the support of the project.
The Program involves Professional Higher Institutes located on the regional territory and available to receive foreign students, to whom it offers training courses of 3/5 years, at the end of which, the same will earn a qualification spendable in the national and international labor market. The project, by its natural conformation and the internationalist imprint, which over the years, has intended to give the Calabria Region to our territory, aims to strengthen the cooperative spirit between nations on several levels, starting precisely from training. The young people will be welcomed by the Calabrian community in a path of scholastic and cultural integration specially designed to give an international breath to the policies of social and territorial development.
The relentless work of promoting the Program in the territory, of the Regional Councillor for Culture, Prof. Mario Caligiuri, has been the engine of this perfect machine. Together with him, the Mayor of S.Agata d’Esaro, Luca Branda, and the Mayor of Scigliano, Carlo Arcuri, have strived for the Program to find application in the municipalities they administer.
The forty students, will stay overnight together in Diamante and then will be divided among the three participating schools: the IISS of DIAMANTE, the IPS of SCIGLIANO and the IPSIA of S. AGATA D’ESARO. The respective headmasters Concetta Smeriglio, Fernanda Petrisano and Filomena Lanzone, in close collaboration with the Regional School Office, thus see rewarded the considerable efforts made in making possible the intermingling of all the components necessary for the realization of the Program, thanks also to the involvement of the teaching and administrative bodies involved. The main objective of the Program is to make Calabria the seat of centers of excellence in education, so as to corroborate the Internationalization Policies of the Region of Calabria, supported by the President, Giuseppe Scopelliti.
The formidable collaboration created between Is.Ca.P.I., the Embassy and the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Farnesina and the relevant diplomatic bodies ensured that this important event saw Italy and Iraq as protagonists in a training and integration project for the first time, with a view to promoting and consolidating the values of international cooperation.
On Monday, Jan. 27, 5 p.m. at the Aula Magna of the IIS of Diamante in loc. Praino is scheduled for the first welcoming ceremony in the presence of the Calabria Region’s Councillor for Culture, Mario Caligiuri, and will be attended by mayors, principals, authorities and representatives of the communities and schools involved in the initiative.
