Cultural exchange – Travel

Since 2015, Ki.E.Ka. e.V. has been organizing annual trips during the school holidays for children and young people aged 4 to 18. These trips focus on cultural exchange and sporting activities. In recent years, the trips have taken participants to the small Italian town of Formia (LT), where the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) runs a training center for competitive athletes from all over the world.

Accommodation and meals for the children are provided directly on the secure CONI premises. Every day, they have the opportunity to meet top international athletes at lunch or dinner. Under the supervision of Davide Tizzano (Director of CONI in Formia) and Carlo Tizzano (organizer), the children and young people can take advantage of the wide range of sports facilities offered by the Olympic training center.

Since the beginning, the sports program for the trips has focused primarily on water sports. Our project manager in this area, Armando Caliendo, has been involved in the project since 2015. He supports the organization of the program on site and supervises the children and young people, particularly in windsurfing and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP).

Armando first completed a degree in economics and business at the University of Cassino and worked in this field for several years before entering the sports profession. Today, he is a certified personal trainer through the Italian Sports Federation, a coach for young competitive tennis players (FITP Federazione Italiana Tennis e Padel), and a windsurfing instructor for the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV / Federazione Italiana Vela).

Working with children and young people has always been at the heart of his sporting activities. In the past, he has also been involved in projects that offer sports activities for children with disabilities and prepare them for the Special Olympics. Armando is also involved in a project that aims to promote tennis in Italian primary and secondary schools. For several years, he has been the sports director of the "Centro Velico Vindicio" sailing club in Formia, where the children and young people participating in our sports and cultural trips also enjoy water sports.

As already mentioned, in addition to the sporting aspect, the cultural exchange that arises from international trips is particularly important to us. Understanding other people, their cultures, and ways of life not only promotes coexistence in a diverse urban environment such as Berlin, but also promotes the personal development of the children themselves.

This manifests itself in different ways. On the one hand, for many of the children who attend our bilingual facilities and do not have an Italian family background themselves, our trips offer the first opportunity to use the language skills they have learned outside of daycare. On the other hand, we try to give the children in-depth knowledge on a specific topic through a day trip. This can relate to historical and cultural events or to issues of sustainability. In 2022, for example, the children helped to protect sea turtle nesting sites. In 2019, the focus was on the 500th anniversary of the death of the artist Leonardo da Vinci. His work and life were prepared and discussed in the daycare centers throughout the year prior to the trip. 

Close contact with Italian culture and language therefore offers many opportunities to learn new things and grow beyond oneself by encouraging children to become more independent. For many children, this is their first big trip abroad without their parents or guardians. Nevertheless, they are in familiar surroundings thanks to their siblings or our educational staff, whom the children know from the daycare centers.

In the summer of 2023, we traveled to Greece for the first time, to the island of Lefkada. Here, too, the children were able to try their hand at windsurfing and deepen and expand their existing skills. For our day trip, we went on a sailing tour that ventured to destinations visited by the adventurer Odysseus.