What are we?

An innovative and integrated network of practical, dynamic relationships between University of Girona students and schoolchildren of foreign origin. The aim is to supplement the efforts of the organisations and authorities working to help newly arrived residents and improve social cohesion.

The roots of the Project Rossinyol go back to Israel in the mid-1970s, when a national tutoring programme called the Perach Project was established for school pupils in disadvantaged situations.

In the 1990s, the University of Malmö (Sweden) adapted the project to the characteristics of the city: 52% of Malmö’s population is of foreign origin and problems with integration, inequality and exclusion had cropped up.

The Näktergalen Project (“nightingale” in english) was set up in the city in 1998 to establish relationships and dialogue between university students and primary school pupils in the city, most of them immigrants. The nightingale is the mascot of Malmö and symbolises “a small bird that sings beautifully when it feels secure”. The European Nightingale project emerged from this to include universities and schools from all over Europe. The UdG is one of its leading members and here the scheme is known as the “Projecte Rossinyol” (Catalan for nightingale).