Teachers from both sides of river Nistru/Dniester meet to consolidate their capacities and efforts in building social cohesion

Veronica Pozneac has been a teacher of History and Romanian language for over 30 years at the Theoretical High School „Lucian Blaga”, located on the left bank of Nistru/Dniester River, in Tiraspol. The language of her teaching is Romanian. 

Liudmila Rusnac has been teaching English and working as a psychologist for over 20 years at the Theoretical High School ”Academician Constantin Sibirschi”, located on the right bank of Nistru/Dniester River, in Chisinau. She is in contact with Russian speaking children. 

Both Veronica and Liudmila were active participants of a practical workshop "Creating an inclusive school environment and developing social cohesion" which was recently organized by UN Human Rights in Moldova. 

Together with another 23 teachers from 9 schools from both banks of Nistru river, in November 2023 they met to learn effective methods and techniques of non-formal education, aiming at awareness-raising to counter prejudices, stereotypes and discrimination and to promote social cohesion within the school environment.   

"Social cohesion and non-discrimination are topics that concern each of us, we often encounter them. Being at this workshop, I learned practices through which I received answers to several of my concerns. With the accumulated knowledge and through the future activities we will be able to achieve some important goals for the society of our country - the right bank and the left bank that must be united. I am happy to be here", said Veronica Pozneac.  

"When does discrimination start?”, „Where does it come from?" - were some of the key questions examined by the trainers at the workshop.  

„Discrimination, actually, might start on the basis of different ethnicity, disability, religion, social and economic status: One of us might have a different skin or hair color, or lacks the material goods, which the majority owns. It is also about the discomfort of being in the company of another person, because of the stereotypes, which still exist about some social groups, the person might belong to. Our goal as teachers is to show students that we are all different, but all of us are equal in rights and all lives matter. If you're not like everyone else, you're unique, that's why it's worth discovering and appreciating ourselves and others” – Mentioned Ludmila Rusnac. 

The workshop was held as a part of the Project "Building sustainable and inclusive peace, strengthening trust and social cohesion on both banks of the Nistru River", which is jointly implemented by UN Human Rights, UNDP and UN Women.