DON'T LECTURE ABOUT ERASING BORDERS / BECOME THE ERASER

ERASMUS+ TRAINING COURSE BITOLA, MACEDONIA 27.04.2018 - 06.05.2018

intro

The aim of this project is to enable young migrants and young people with migrant backgrounds to gain knowledge, skills and attitudes to successfully increase the participation of young migrants in the existing structures, spaces and mechanisms.

This is in order to enhance participation in decision making, combating radicalisation and advocating for their rights.

The participants invited to this training course are youth workers, leaders and educators coming from diverse backgrounds working with migrants and refugees facing inclusion and radicalisation challenges. The participants should have experience as youth workers and have worked with migrants and/or refugees.

our role

The participants are from: Lebanon, Germany, Spain, Macedonia, Albania, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The youth workers, who work directly with migrants, in this case with refugees, are lacking tools and methods that can increase the inclusion of refugees. The nonformal education, they have found, is a perfect way to learn new skills, gain new knowledge and increase the awareness of the refugees and the surrounding societies about the importance of multiculturalism and European values. This project is created as a platform for youth workers who work directly with refugees, to exchange, build and develop tools and methods that will transfer to the refugees by organizing workshops with them, according to the situation and interest in the camps or other surroundings where they work.

The participants involved are open-minded youth workers, motivated to gain new knowledge to develop competences, but also to be multipliers once back home. They will have the chance to express their specific needs in the work with refugees and together with the group and the training team to find solutions.

how aware are we personally If you live close to refugees, you can understand a lot of what they are going through. You see it on a daily basis and you can reach a level of understanding that a person without contact cannot achieve, even if they try. Contact with these groups of people is necessary to compliment the information that you can find in other media, since a lot of their experiences don’t reach any other audience than the people listening to them.

Personal interest plays a huge part on how aware of the subject you are and how willing you are to search for information.

Media is very important in raising awareness on the situation, even if sometimes the information is not objective.

It also depends on the country you live and how far from you the conflict is. The closer your country is to the actual confrontation the most likely you are to speak about it, and the more it will appear on the media you consume every day. Unfortunately, some people tend to only pay attention to the subjects that directly affect them, either on a personal level or in their community.

Often women and children are portrayed as the face of these groups, maybe because their vulnerability strikes closer to the human condition and its natural instinct to protect - like if being a male, a human who’s got to leave everything behind to escape the land you were born in, is not enough for people to raise their voice against such injustice.

How fair this is, is up to us to decide.

the position of education system and media 1) Formal education VS non-formal education There is a lack of education about migrants/refugees topics in formal settings (schools, universities, etc...) due to multiple reasons: - political issues and sensitivities - lack of information/knowledge about the topic - time restrictions On the other hand, informal education is active but it doesn't reach too many beneficiaries, because of: - limited financial resources - limited human resources - language barrier - strict regulations and formalities

2) Role and Influence of Media In Europe, media doesn't mention refugee stories enough, and some misleading information are being diffused, which influence the public opinion.

In the Arab world, refugees are the daily topic of the news which address many points of views.

There are different media stations that cover multiple sides of the same story.

We shouldn't limit ourselves to one source of information. We need to be critical and to analyse all the information and come up with our own conclusions.

needs of the refugees and migrants Assessing the needs of refugees was tackled in today’s session, and discussed among the different groups and teams from around the world.

Namely, obstacles in fulfilling these needs was found to be the immediate result of the inability of the local and international organisations, as well as governments, to assess, identify and properly evaluate these needs.

Mostly, it has been noted that there is a lack of dialogue efforts between these institutions and their target group in question: the refugee and marginalised migrant community.

Do we know the issues that the migrants and refugees face?

Do we hear them directly from them?

Or we get information for this through other sources?

From previous experiences, we shared a variety of obstacles that migrants and refugees face and where we as youth workers are able to provide support.

Through the method of "Problem Tree", we analysed some of the problems, namely: discrimination, violence: physical and genderbased, women's rights, pregnancy, lack of findings for support, legal issues etc.

The debriefings were quite long and dynamic, we experienced a process of changing of certain understandings and points of view and examples were offered that will encourage the improvement of conditions.

tips and tools for youth workers for including migrants and refugees During the session about funding opportunities, we addressed the different means through which the participants and their organisations may apply for funding and grant opportunities within their local, regional and international contexts.

The discussion went through different sources of funds such as the Anna Lindh Foundation, Erasmus+/EU grants, as well as American grants such as the System for Award Management grant and USAID. The discussion further developed into a rich discussion and look into the obstacles different participants and their organisations encountered whilst applying for these grants, as well as tips and tools to ensure that these grants are won by the participants and their different organisations.

Other discussions and sessions throughout the day tackled the different ways in which youth workers may include refugees and marginalised groups in their activities through more dialogue, integrative activities, and through an open discussion with the target group in question about their OWN desires and needs.Â

about Loesje Who Äąs she?

Loesje is a girl from The Netherlands, born in 1983.

Together with a group of friends she started her energetic life as poster girl. On the day she was old enough to travel on her own, she went abroad and now she has friends on every continent.

It is hard to keep track on all the posters that are spread every year in Europe and some countries outside as well.

Our experience...

As a team, we showed initiative, cooperation, team work, sense of humour, respect and found ourselves in the shoes of the others.

Solidarity and tolerance played a huge role in defining the safe work environment. We learned new tools that will help us in the future and created variations of the Loesje methodology by discussing the topics out loud instead of writing them individually.

We were very open minded and inclusive.

Tough decisions had to be made in order to keep quality over quantity, but even then there was an atmosphere of mutual understanding and academical exchange.

The team was lucky to have the Spanish group as part of the project which created the first Loesje posters in Spanish language in 10 years.

Sensitive topics as refugees, sexuality, inclusion, terrorism, racism, etc. were discussed without fear and prejudice. During the discussions and the creative writing, we managed to find common ground and no one’s ideas were left out.

In the end the outcome was very fruitful and satisfying.

posters The following posters were created during the training course.

Find them on these links, and spread them: www.loesje.org/posterarchive/advanced https://www.facebook.com/pg/LoesjeBerlin/pho tos/?tab=album&album_id=1847401498605032

posters The following posters were created during the Spanish creative text writing workshop.

Find them on these links, and spread them: www.loesje.org/posterarchive/advanced https://www.facebook.com/pg/LoesjeBerlin/pho tos/?tab=album&album_id=1847401498605032

project proposals Group #1 Design Thinking Capacity Building Program for Teachers Context/Background/Relevance: • 7 years civil war in Syria • 3 million refugees in neighboring countries • Lebanon – the highest # of Syr. Refugees in the Arab region + ½ million Palestinian refugees • Incompetency in the English language Workshop Goal & Scope An intro to the methodology & mindset of HCD with the goal of testing a new problem solving approach to improve English language instruction in the classrooms.

Expected outcomes will be translated into ideas & prototypes of solutions.

Workshop Objectives: Introducing “Design Thinking” (DT) & its importance in education Identifying challenges in classrooms Integrating DT tools in the classrooms Applying DT to come up with innovative Teaching Strategies Presenting the projects for assessment Learning Outcomes: 1. Identify the value of DT as well as the unequal stages of the process 2. Formulate a student – centered challenge 3. Identify, reframe & focus the challenge around need/ opportunity 4. Develop the capacity to design & implement innovative projects around the chosen challenges Beneficiaries: Primary: 40 teachers in 5 education centers across the country End users: Syrian/ Palestinian students Partners: UNHCR, UNRWA, Local NGO’s Activities: Non-formal methods, DT methodology, outdoor activities, presentations Visibility: Reports, Social media, TV interviews, Magazines, Post project: integration of DT into projects

project proposals Group #2

Group #3

7 Day Training Course: The Role of Media in Today’s World

Human Rights Education Youth Exchange: Discrimination; London

Objective: Being critical of our media sources, Fostering and understanding multiple perspectives that exist, contextualising media reports

Target group: Students 50 in Law, Journalism, and Social work

Partners: NGO’s, Edu. Institutions, Magazines, Newspapers, freelance media Institutions

Partners: NGO’s, Universities, TV/ Media

Participant profile: Media workers and students.

People interested in History, media, politics, and social related issues. (age 18+)

Activities: Work with NGO’s that cover human rights, Literature from universities, Seminars related to the legal aspects, presentations/ Team work, Television debate

Target group: Participants and their local societies. Donors.

Countries: Balkans, Middle East, and Western European Activities: Day 1 & 2 – Team building through thematic Day 3 – Analysis of Media (writing and visual) in different branches Group work – defining outcome Visiting NGO’s/ Newspaper press/ Startups in the field Day 4 – Discussion about ethics, social media, Freedom of speech, Social networks, Historical context, Proselytism, (More group work) Intercultural night Day 5 – Free day – City Tour Day 6 – How to use media sources, making blog, using google, and more media resources (Prezi, Blogs, social media) Day 7 – Presentation of results and dissemination of results (Video, photos)

project proposals Group #4

Group #5

Food Creativity Festival

4.1 - Long Term Project (2 months – 1 year) Educating Youth in Sexual Health

Description: Celebrating Diversity with food Objective: Raise awareness about: Eating habits, Diversity & Variety Awareness about food waste, wise ways to use food Breaking assumptions Large scale EVS 1 Month or 1,5 months Location – Turkey Partners: EVS accredited organizations responsible to select participants on 1st stage Target group: Migrants from your city: Armenia Ukraine, youth, elderly, international, volunteers etc.

Using food for building bridges between different cultures Activities: 1 Week- Orientation week, 2 week-Preparation of Festival, 1 week-Festival Before the festival, participants create Loesje posters related to the food topic Junk food activity: relating junk food with society problems Grass roots: Relating society with history Pescatarian activity: Misleading info on water problems Gardening (Tree planting) Customs, games from childhood During the festival fundraising activities for food lifestyle issues/ diabetes – give awareness about healthy lifestyle Outcomes: Knowledge about healthy lifestyles, Through food: Learn about eh problems in society Dissemination: Media, Social Media, TV, A chef from the country, Flyers/ Posters, share in SALTO, Each partner can organize an intercultural lunch/ evening back in their country

Training sessions for sexual education teachers in different areas/ schools Seminars for teenagers Partners: Schools, health clinics/ medical experts, informal NGO’s, Students (age 15-18) + teachers (any age, sex-ed teachers + biology) 4.2 – EVS 2 months to 1 year Exchanging skills + languages with Refugees 1. A young volunteer (Anywhere in EU): ticket, Live in peace center, access to food 2. Objective: a. Teach refugee children a skill over period. b. Have EU “youth” (18+) experience camp in first had c. Exchange – dynamic camp d. Provide skills + language 3. Activities: Classes formal + non formal (depending on age) 4. Budget: Ticket + per diem – (Budget)

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