An online meeting with a participant of the project “Mission Siberia” was organized for students of Vilkaviškis Salomėja Nėris basic school.
On May 26 eighth-graders and their educators met with Augustas Kišonas, a participant in Mission Siberia 2019, who shared memories of the difficulties and challenges during the trip. Before going on the expedition, all participants tested their abilities on a test hike in Lithuania.
In 2019, 16 participants of the expedition went to Kazakhstan. The team’s mission in the Karaganda area lasted for 10 days. The expedition went to Kazakhstan for the second year in a row, and the area is important for Lithuanians, because, according to different data, from 20 to 80 thousand Lithuanians were imprisoned in the camps in Kazakhstan. During 10 days, the participants of the expedition visited 18 cemeteries, searched for graves with Lithuanian surnames, as many as 130 were found. Also, 2 chapel columns and 1 cross were erected to commemorate Lithuanian memory. According to Vaida Kriščiūnienė, the school’s Lithuanian language teacher and coordinator of the Tolerance Education Center, such a lesson was a great lesson in citizenship and living history. After the lesson, the students, describing the impressions they had during the meeting, mentioned that they would like to take part in such an expedition and experience the adventures and trials that the participants of Mission Siberia experienced.
