Editing Rotselaar (section)

==International friendship==

[[File:Cabo Verde Sal Espargos.jpg|thumb|right|Main street [[Espargos]]]]
Rotselaar maintains [[sister city]] relationships with [[Bad Gandersheim]], a city in southern [[Lower Saxony]], [[Germany]], located between [[Hannover]] and [[Kassel]], since 1987. In 1990, a [[town twinning]] committee was created for the purpose of furthering the ties between Rotselaar and Bad Gandersheim through visits, [[wikt:exhibition|exhibition]]s, language courses and other initiatives. An annual town twinning [[Workweek|weekend]] is organised as well, alternately in Rotselaar and Bad Gandersheim.<ref name="International">{{cite web
|url=http://www.rotselaar.be/Index.aspx?SGREF=3658
|title=Buiten onze grenzen
|publisher=The Municipality of Rotselaar
|access-date=2007-07-05
|language=nl
}}</ref>

[[File:Santa maria beach sal.jpg|thumb|right|Santa Maria beach]]
There has been a [[cooperation]] project between Rotselaar and [[Sal, Cape Verde|Sal]], one of the [[islands]] in the [[archipelago]] of [[Cape Verde]]. The island is around 30&nbsp;km long by 15&nbsp;km wide, and has roughly the same number of [[inhabitants]] as Rotselaar. Sal has 4 habitational centres: [[Espargos]] with the main urban and administrative centre  and the [[Amilcar Cabral International Airport|international airport]] of Cape Verde, Santa Maria, where [[tourism]] and [[hotels]] are situated, Pedra de Lume, once the site of salt collection (hence the name of the island, "sal" is [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] for "[[salt]]"), and Palmeira, a fishing village with a [[port]].<ref name="International"/>

The request for cooperation came from Sal itself. Basilio Ramos, then [[mayor]] of Sal, sought to establish a link with a [[Municipalities of Belgium|municipality]] in the vicinity of [[Leuven]]. As a former [[student]] of the [[Katholieke Universiteit Leuven|K.U.Leuven]] he wanted to strengthen the ties with [[Belgium]]. This form of cooperation is different from the others. The cooperation with Sal is a form of development cooperation where the accent is on exchange and partnership in the administrative and the professional fields, and in particular on the exchange of experiences in the fields of environment and [[youth work]].

In 1989, the [[municipal government]] adopted the [[Romania]]n village of [[Vrânceni]], which is a part of [[Căiuţi]] in the eastern [[Counties of Romania|county]] of [[Bacău]], as part of the project "AdoptieDorpen Roemenië" (Adoption Villages Romania). The local action committee organises various activities throughout the year, of which the yields go to the adoption village. Among others, a school building was constructed in Vrânceni with the help of Rotselaar.<ref name="International"/>