Twinned villages- How does that work, then?

This is in living memory. WWII was a devastating European conflict and as part of the *never again* plans they decided to ensure growth of mutual understanding through town twinning. You can't hate the Germans if you know German people from a town like yours. It's a local council led, rather than a regional, national or International initiative. I have participated in Twinning events in my local town, and I'd describe it as earnest and worthwhile (AKA boring) and more than just a taxpayer funded jolly. Typically local schools do language exchanges and things like that. My local town has a large Bangladeshi community - it wouldn't surprise me if we twinned with somewhere like [Saidpur Bangladesh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saidpur,_Bangladesh) ###[From Wikipedia *Origins of the modern concept*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_city#Origins_of_Modern_concept) [*Throughout history, many cities have participated in various cultural exchanges and similar activities that might resemble a sister-city or twin-city relationship, but the first officially documented case of such a relationship was a signed agreement between the leaders of the cities of Toledo, Ohio and Toledo, Spain in 1931.\[5\] However, the modern concept of town twinning appeared during the Second World War. More specifically, it was inspired by the bombing of Coventry on 14 November 1940, known as the Coventry Blitz.\[3\] First conceived by the then Mayor of Coventry, Alfred Robert Grindlay,\[6\] culminating in his renowned telegram to the people of Stalingrad \(now Volgograd\) in 1942,\[7\]\[8\]\[9\] the idea emerged as a way of establishing solidarity links between cities in allied countries that went through similar devastating events.\[10\]* ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_city#Origins_of_Modern_concept) The comradeship between the two cities continued, when again in response to the Battle of Stalingrad, 830 women in Coventry – led by the subsequent Mayor Emily Smith – had their names embroidered on a tablecloth along with the words "Little help is better than a lot of pity" and sent it, along with money (each donated six pence), to the people of Stalingrad.[11][4][12] The tablecloth can now be seen at the Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad. The twinning between Coventry and Stalingrad was formalized in 1944[13] and, after the end of the war, similar links were established to foster friendship and understanding among former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation,[2][14] with new twinnings between Coventry and German cities: Kiel as early as in 1947 and Dresden in 1956.[3] In 1957, Coventry was officially twinned with Belgrade, even though the link actually dates back to 1953 when then Yugoslav Ambassador visited Coventry and offered a gift of timber from his native country for use in the new Civic Theatre, which when finished was named Belgrade Theatre.[15] The purpose of twinnings was then expanded to encourage trade and tourism[1] or to reflect other links, such as towns sharing the same name or migration links.[16] By the 2000s, town twinning became increasingly used to form strategic international business links among member cities,[17][18] and may include localities of any scope such as villages, prefectures, or countries.