Hernani is celebrating the International Day for Cultural Diversity this year in an innovative way. The Urumea Ikastola, the publishing house Alberdania, and the Hernani City Council have collaborated to realize the 'Sorbeltzak' project. Thanks to this initiative, a story that merges interculturality and nature will be published at the beginning of the upcoming 2026/2027 academic year, offering new educational material for classrooms.

The project originates from Urumea Ikastola, where the story 'Xor eta Beltz: mundu bat denontzat' (Xor and Beltz: A World for Everyone) was created and worked on with second-grade LH students. The tale connects themes of migration and the environment, using the annual migratory journey of swifts (sorbeltzak) as an example. 'The journey and survival needs of these birds have helped students naturally and closely understand the reality of human migration and cultural diversity,' they state.

The content was developed by biologist Iñaki Sanz Azkue, with facilitation within the educational center by Maialen Díaz de Cerio and Ane Aierbe, teachers at Urumea Ikastola. They received advisory support from the publishing house Alberdania and the association Parean.

The Interculturality department of the Hernani City Council has highlighted the work carried out at Urumea Ikastola. Itsaso Lekuona, the Councilor for Interculturality, considers it 'essential and strategic to work on such topics in all schools' to foster coexistence and the importance of diversity.

This project will also extend beyond Hernani, as the publishing house Alberdania will release it in early September, thus allowing the material to be distributed throughout Euskal Herria. The educational material will be available in the book via QR code, and thanks to the Hernani City Council, next academic year, second-grade LH students from all Hernani schools will receive the material for classroom use.