Bucharest, the capital of Romania is situated in the south-east of Romania. Bucharest represents a touristic
attraction for many foreigners and for the Romanians themselves. So, the area was highly industrialized and
after 1989 many institutions and factories have changed their status. Thus, many families were forced to
change their professional orientation and most of them decided to work abroad leaving their children in the
relatives’ care. Today the situation is almost the same or even worse, because of the financial crisis which led
to serious changes concerning local community life. The children are the most affected due to social and family
problems lacking moral support, motivation, taking into account the idea of abandoning school in favour of
working. Moreover, such situations in such circumstances lead to violence, social exclusion, miscommunication,
psychological problems and lack of affection. “Projecting European Future” is an alternative to the above
mentioned issues and a hope to get students more involved in school life. Therefore, teachers and the local
community will learn to cooperate and work in international teams sharing each partner’s national heritage.
Not only teachers but also students have to deal with the economic constraints, the low income, low funds for
training courses and the reduction of some working place and inevitably unemployed teachers. Unfortunately,
from these reasons, teachers, students and people in general become less motivated lacking the self-
encouragement to go on studying. Nevertheless, the project is an opportunity to develop partnerships, cultural
exchange and raise awareness on each country’s values.

The area of responsibility of the Education Office and the activities of local partners is in the region of Thessaly
and especially in the prefecture of Trikala . It is a suburban area and the occupation of the inhabitants are
mainly rural.
The prefecture of Trikala has an area of 3389 sq.m, located in the centre of Greece and is one of the 4
prefectures of Thessaly . The population base of the last census in 2001, was 139,548 inhabitants. It consists
of two provinces, that of Trikala which population was 110,481 inhabitants and the population of Kalambaka
which was 28,465 residents. The capital of the prefecture is the city of Trikala , in which 70,000 people live
today. The county collects 1.3% of the population with natural population decrease of 1.9% (32nd in class),
and in 1997 joined the 43rd in the index of per capita GDP with 66.9% of the average Greek.
The relatively small scale manufacturing and the forestry and farming characterize the area, and clearly identify
the nature of employment, flowing in the primary key field.
In the line Kalambaka-Meteora-Pyli and the surrounding villages, with varying activities, employment covers
all three sectors of the economy, a significant proportion employed full-and excluded-mainly in tourism to
Kalambaka and the city, most deals with services (trade, services, small and medium-sized craft, construction,
etc.), and several significant proportion of workers in the industries of the region, both within and around the
city and along the roads Trikala-Kalambaka-Trikala, Larisa, Trikala - Karditsa and Trikala - Pyli.
It should be noted the complementary nature of employment for farmers in mountainous areas, whose income
is supplemented by a number of seasonal work.
The main problems that adversely affect the development of the county are:
- The geographical morphology (mountains) of the area which greatly increases the cost of projects, resulting
in the lack of even basic infrastructure, combined with the presence of many dispersed communities in
mountainous areas of the county.
- Problematic connection (road, rail) with neighbouring counties, especially in Western Greece, and lack of airport at Thessaly .
- Difficulty linking settlements mainly in the mountainous part.
- Lack of defined industrial area involves the unwillingness of establishment of new businesses.
- Small in size agricultural property has led a small farm income.
The biggest problems facing our region in education are:
The integration of immigrant children (language problems)
Racism
Economic poverty
Violence-school
Adapting curricula to the new requirements as they arise from the cultural nature of education.