Culture is everywhere, from the streets to the workplace to behind our front doors.\nIt influences our clothing, art, music, food and even our interactions with each other.\nSymbols, heroes and rituals give us hints about how people function in a society.\nSwiss psychologist Carl Jung stated, “Anything that irritates us in another can help us understand ourselves better.”\nHow does someone on the outside see us?\nWho are we essentially?\nOur mental heritage determines how we interpret words, phrases and stories.\nWe see through our own cultural glasses.\nWhat does this mean for our role as citizens?\nWe are mostly unaware of culture.\nIt is like air: indispensable, but invisible.\nThis makes it difficult to define.\nAn Arabic proverb says, “We don’t know who invented water, but it certainly wasn’t a fish.”\nThe fish swims in its water and knows nothing else.\nOnly in a different environment, with warmer or colder, saltier or sweeter water, does he realize, “This is different! This is not my water!”\nThe fish experiences that there are other waters.\nThe same is true of cultures.\nCultural differences really become noticeable when they clash, when they are diametrically opposed.\nThis can lead to discomfort, misunderstandings and even polarization.\nNot because people are unwilling, but because there is increasing division.\nWe have a natural tendency to judge the behavior of others through our own cultural lenses.\nWe often rely on stereotypes, which are often half-truths and lead to prejudice and misinterpretation. <\/p>\n\n
Therefore, the Connect2Us Foundation’s goal is to help everyone, and especially children, engage with each other and guard against prejudice.\nWe want to share stories to learn that while there may be cultural differences, they don’t have to be “scary” or “weird,” but “fun” and “interesting.”\nWe want to learn that in the end we have much more in common than we have differences.\nConnection instead of surprise. <\/p>\n\n
This annual report is about rolling out Empathy Land internationally, including to other language areas.\nThe game is already being used in some schools in Italy.\nTalks are underway in Canada, Sweden, Germany and Dubai.\nIn Canada and Dubai, the Lions club also seems to be the entry point to get started. <\/p>\n\n
Remote outreach is very difficult.\nWe have not yet found the right form to manifest ourselves through Instagram and TikTok.\nPartly due to the limited time of volunteers, but also due to the lack of knowledge.\nIn 2024, we will consider the goals of the Foundation and how to use the limited funds. <\/p>\n\n
President Jan Vincent Meertens and volunteer Divya are writing a book based on the stories we also use at Connect2Us.\nThe publicity surrounding that book could have a positive impact on the Foundation’s reputation.\nIt is being investigated how the book will be published, perhaps under the management of the Foundation. <\/p>\n\n
On behalf of the board, Jan Vincent Meertens<\/p>\n\n
President<\/p>\n\n
March 2023<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Read the 2023 annual report here<\/a><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Culture is everywhere, from the streets to the workplace to behind our front doors. It influences our clothing, art, music, food and even our interactions with each other. Symbols, heroes and rituals give us hints about how people function in a society. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung stated, “Anything that irritates us in another can help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3104","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3115,"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3104\/revisions\/3115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/connect2us.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n
ANBI Form Duty to Publish <\/h3>\n\n