Bullying - From Reality to Virtual and Back

CONTENTS

1.Description of the project

2.Objectivies of the project

3.Introduction

4.Main features of bullying and cyberbullying

5.Causes, effects, how to prevent

6.Statistics in Europe

7.Intro activities

8.Hopes and fears

9.Poster activities about bullying

10.Trust games

11.Land art

12.Eggsercise

13.World coffee (Causes of bulling and effects)

14.Role play

15.City bound and hiking

16.Romanian night

17.Posters and flyers

18.Forum theater

19.Video

20.Interviews

21.Celebrities who have been bullied

22.Partecipant and organizers

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1.DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT "Bullying from real to virtual and back" is a youth exchange about bullying and cyberbullying.

The context of the project is due to the multiplication of bullying situations in the 17-24 age group.

Needs analysis showed that centralized methods and programs applied by ministries and centralized institutions do not deliver the expected results, with better efficiency being reported by non-formal education tools (prevention campaigns, films, theater) left out by young people directly involved in bullying situations.

Through this project we aim to empower young people to prevent bullying and to increase the degree of intervention as victims, witnesses and aggressors to limit the

spread of hatred and

discrimination of any kind.

The aim of the project is to

increase the responsibility of

young people to prevent bullying.

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2.

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3. INTRODUCTION

We are team of participants in Erasmus + project that attended project called “Bullying from real to virtual and back". Our purpose here was to help people get the message why some people is getting bullied and why it should be stopped.

We arrived in Busteni at 2020 26 February to help people get message in

this city and schools to stop the bullying. Through our time we spent here we created many projects for anti-bullying campaigns. We hope these projects help people understand how serious it is

to be a bully and a victim and that none of these roles are good and affects both sides negatively.

Many of us are involved in many bullying situations and trying to get out of them. They have experienced many cases that affects them negatively through their mental and physical health. Reason we think why it should be stopped is because each year it happens more and it really change people and who they truly are.

In this project we are team of 8 people Arta, Elena, Elfa, Erton, Gabi, Kamile, Lupa and Paula. We created this magazine to show what we learned during this project and to show to people what bullying does to you and what it cause for other people.

We hope this journal helps more people who is getting bullied stop caring and stop worrying about it and many people who are being bullies. It would help other people to change to a better persons and be more themselves. We hope this magazine will help you understand real life purpose and that bullying doesn’t make anyone happier and more successful.

In the photo from left to right: Arta, Lupa, Erton and Elfa (part of the publish team)

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Bullying is the use of force, coercion, or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate.

One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imbalance of physical or social power.

Cyberbullying is a form of bullying or harassment using electronic means.

Cyberbullying is when someone bullies others on the internet and on social media sites.

Can include posting rumors, threats, sexual remarks, victims' personal information, or pejorative labels (i.e. hate speech).

Behaviors used to assert such domination may include physical assault or coercion, verbal harassment, or threat, and such acts may be directed repeatedly toward particular targets.

Can be identified by repeated behavior and an intent to harm.

The biggest change in bullying in the age of social media is the appearance of anonymity. Some people simply refuse to acknowledge that there is another person on the other side of their online actions. All they see is an avatar and a computer screen.

Anonymity is the possibility to take assumed identity, it lets people do and say things they would never do in real life.

It can be physical or verbal.

Verbal bullying includes any of the following:

•Derogatory name-calling

•Spreading rumors or lying about someone

•Threatening someone

•Yelling at or talking to someone in a rude or unkind tone of voice, especially without justifiable cause

•Mocking someone's voice or style of speaking

•Laughing at someone

•Making insults or otherwise making fun of someone

Cyberbulling can take place everytime someone surfs on the internet

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4. BULLYING AND CYBER-BULLYING Conversations about bullies used to involve a few core stereotypes, like the kid that pushed you down and took your lunch money. Or the mean girl who spread nasty rumours about you. Maybe the hazing that would happen to a new student.

Of course these arent’ the only types of bullying. Bullying, at its core, is any repeated behaviour that is meant to make someone suffer.

It doesn’t matter if that suffering is physical, emotional, or mental. If it’s caused by repeated behaviour, it’s bullying.

And while there have always been multiple forms of bullying, new forms like the “cyberbully” have risen in the last few years. They are largely driven by the increasing use of social media. Just as there are many forms of social media, there are many forms of social media-driven bullying.

But the real question is: Why? Why have these new forms risen? What makes them so much more appealing than in-person bullying? Why is it so hard to put an end to?

Here are just a few contributing factors:

-Anonymity

In reality, they know another human will suffer. They simply can’t care the same way they would if they were face-to-face with that person.

Many people will also be more bold with their online bullying because

they feel they themselves are anonymous,

and thus unaccountable for their actions.

And, in some cases, they are.

-Trolling Internet trolls intentionally try to provoke or offend others in order to elicit a reaction.

Trolls and cyberbullies do not always have the same goals: while some trolls engage in cyberbullying, others may be engaged in comparatively harmless mischief. A troll may be disruptive either for their own amusement or because they are genuinely a combative person.

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4. BULLYING AND CYBER-BULLYING -VPNs (virtual private networks) and other technological advances are useful in protecting your security online. But they can also make it hard to track down online bullies. Numerous anonymous messaging and confession apps have popped up in the last ten years or so. Many have come and gone in that time, but the concept remains. And it seems that online bullies thrive on these platforms.

Cyberbullying has become more common nowadays because of all the technology that children have access to. The most common apps that teenagers use to cyberbully are Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.

Bullies can pop up on any type of app or social media site, thanks to perceived anonymity. Even apps with very positive intentions can have downsides.

For example, many fitness and health apps have been created with the goal of helping other people

become healthier. But there

are a few negatives of fitness

apps, like the chance to

“fat shame” or otherwise bully

on community message boards.

There are upsides to online

anonymity, especially

in the age of “cancel

culture” (keep reading

to learn more about

this). But if you or someone you

love is being bullied on one such

platform, it may be best to leave

the platform.

When bullies can hide behind

the veil of secrecy, they will

continue their behaviour.

Draw by Gabi (Gabriel C.)

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5.CAUSES, EFFECTS, HOW TO PREVENT “Unless and until our society recognizes cyber-bullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue” During this Erasmus + called “Bullying from reality and back” we did different projects to increase our knowledge about bullying and educate other people.

Through our time we spent here we created many projects for antibullying campaigns. For example posters, sketches, videos to express what bullying is for us.

We hope this project will help people to understand how serious is to be a bully and a victim and that none of these roles are good and affects both sides negatively.

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6. STATISTICS IN EUROPE A total of 150.000 incidents were reported for the 2015-2020 school year

This represents an increase of 15.000 reported incidents from 2010-2015 school year

Significant increase were reported in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Latvia.

Types of bullying incidences

Over 60% of the reported bullying and or harassment incidences involved teasing, name calling, threatening in person or other means.

Over 30% involved kicking, hitting, shoving, spitting, hair pulling, and throwing something.

Over 25% involved demeaning and making the victim jokes, making rude and/ or threatening gestures extorting, or exploiting.

Over 15% involved spreading harmful rumors or gossip,

And, over 5% involved getting another person to hit or harm another

Incidents reported by location occurrence

Over 85% of reported incidences occurred on school property

About 10% of the incidences occurred in the school bus

Over 5% occurred on the way to and from school

And about 3% of the reported incidences occurred during events outside of school

As many as 160.000 students stay home on any given day because they’re afraid of being bullied.

140.000 students are physically attacked on secondary school each month

Every 7 minutes a child is bullied

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7.INTRO ACTIVITIES

Introducing game This game helped us to learn more about each other.

The first activity we did, was “presentation”, everyone said his/ her name and nationality.

We also made our “Facebook profile”on a sheet of paper and stick it in the room, so everyone can learn

something about each other.

The second one was a game where we had to write two true things about ourselves and one false in a sheet of paper and stick on our chest. Then we needed to communicate with people and guess witch of the statements was false. It was really eyes opening because we realise that we always judge people by their appearance.

And the saying “Don’t judge the book by its cover” really entertains in the description of this game. We didn’t just communicated each others, but also learned new things about ourselves. From this activity we understood that sometimes we rely on appearances to figure out who and how people are.

Stereotypes The third activity was related with

second one.

For each country there are some stereotypes. So in this activity we needed to show which is the stereotype about our country.

For the Baltic countries it was that they all are from Russia or speak in Russian language, for Polish it was that they drink a lot of vodka. For Italy it was about Corona virus. Estonians showed that they are slow. At the end of it each group there was a traditional or a popular ways to say hello or goodbye. From this activity we could see how different and at the same time similar are the nations.

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8.HOPES AND FEARS During this activity called “HOPES & FEARS” the faciliators put two blank pages on the wall. In the first one there is written “Hopes”, while in the second one there is written “Fears”.

Everyone got a post-it, green for hopes and pink for fears, and on one them had to write hopes and fears about this project and themselves.

In the result a lot of people where scared that they won’t be able to speak in English and they won’t make new friends. Other comments about fears were more funny like “get eaten by a bear” or “be hungry”.

But in the hopes there where a lot of positive comments like get to know other cultures, try new foods, make friends, improve English and themselves and be more self-confident.

We did this activity after intro activities.

The post-it were anonymous.

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9.POSTERS ACTIVITIES ABOUT BULLYING One of the workshops included posters making. We were divided into 5 groups, each of which had to create a poster. We made posters about bullying and anti-bullying in international teams, pointing out the effects, solutions and statistics about bullying in our countries.

“BE A BUDDY NOT A BULLY”

In this poster are showed the effect of bullying on young people. Statistics about cyberbullying, for example in which social-media people are cyberbullied. There is the draw of two people: one is the bully and inside his head there are written some ways to avoid bullying. In front of him there is the victim. Near the victim some post-it show percentage about bullying in Europe, particularly Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Italy, Latvia and Macedonia.

“NO HATE” This group presented the story of Megan Taylor Meier who committed suicide because of bullying. After that they talked about what we can do as individuals to try to stop bullying.

1.Spread knowledge and introduce people into this topic 2.Emotional education, to learn how to manage emotions and react when something happens.

3.Intervention, which means to take actions.

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9.POSTERS ACTIVITIES ABOUT BULLYING

“Cyber Bullying” This poster is about cyber-bullying. Inside

the Blue bubbles there are some quotes quotes that could stop bullying.

While, each rectangle is a main topic. For example there is written “why bullying happens” in the opinion of the people of the group, bully reasons, consequences, statistics and solution.

“IN EUROPE”

This poster shows a boy sitter in the middle. Around in there are some clouds connected to his with stripes in different colors. In the stripes there are represent with draws the causes of bullying (religion, sexual orientation, economic situation etc.) and above them, in the clouds there are the solutions that can be used to stop and prevent bullying.

Under the boy there is a number in red “2200-11000”.

This is the number of 11-13 age kids that has been bullied at least once a month in Europe.

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9.POSTERS ACTIVITIES ABOUT BULLYING

“Bullying”

In this poster are explained different types of bullying: social bullying, cyber bullying, physical bullying and verbal bullying.

On the poster there are a lot of post-it, some are written and some are not. In

the filled ones there are the experiences of bullying that the partecipants of the project lived or the facts that happened to us about bullying. The empty one can be filled by anyone who want to tell his/her experience, also in anonymous way. At the end there are solutions.

During this workshop we needed to be creative, we had no indication, the only rule was to make a poster. So everyone had to express his/her ideas and cooperate with others.

In the next page there is an infographic that shows a summary of what was explained in the posters we made.

So, all the informations we got are putted together in just one page.

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9.POSTERS ACTIVITIES ABOUT BULLYING Summary

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10. TRUST GAMES The cars In pairs, one “blind”participant who has

to close his eyes and trust the driver,

and the other one, who is the driver.

After a whole the roles switch.

They have to establish the signs so the

driver can express his commands. The driver needs to drive the car without using voice, so only with hitting on the shoulder or something like that.

The main rule is to avoid accidents.

This activity reinforced the trust among participants and interaction between them.

There weren’t any “crushes” but the place where we where doing this game was covered with snow so it was really slippery and funny. We trusted the driver so this game approximated us like a team.

Drunken bootle In groups of seven people, six stands in circle and one in the middle (the bottle), who who is stiff and blind while the others are in a circle around him/her. The people had to push gently the one in the middle. So everyone needed to trust all of the participants in the group. It was scary and some of them felt. But nobody complained because it was a fun activity to do.

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11. LAND ART This activity was held in the forest, where different groups had to build a piece of art using only things they can find in the nature like branches, leaves, snow, etc,. The topic was bullying and this was a really great experience for participants to show their creativity and the results were incredible. The works remain in the nature.

“Why me?”

Tree, branches and snow are part of this land art. The tree represent the isolated person, with bullies (snow balls) occupying his whole emotional space (branches). Repressed emotions keep him going down they hits bottom and choices have to be made.

This land art shows a big snowman in the center surrounded by some little snowmen. The little ones are the bullies, they are little, like “small people”, weak. That’s why they attack others. The big one in the center is the victim. He is big because he stands and face the bullies. He is big in the heart.

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This land art shows a snowman, it is the representation of our group leader (Tolea), and showed his personality. Guys created dramaturgic stage art, that represented them protecting our king.

Also the art should tell that we all in this project are together, no matter of persons negative and positive traits, we should care and protect each other.

11. LAND ART This land art was called “Why me?” It was face drawn on the ground whit leaves, stones and other materials found in the forest. The face was sad and crying, because he was bullied, everyone takes joke on him because of his big nose and big teeth.

This land art was a kind of interactive art. Spectators were involved without knowing. The group started taking joke of the snow-man. The intensity increase, they hit the snow-man and destroy him. The people around laughted, and nobody takes action to save the poor snow-man. In the reality this episode is called “the bystander effect”, or “bystander apathy”. Is a social psychological claim that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.

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11. EGGSERCISE Have you ever thought if you can protect an egg from a five metres fall?

Every team had: two sheets of paper, four tooth picks, two balloons, a little piece of tape, two pieces of rope. We were forbidden to use something else or we were expelled.

We had about one hour to find a way to save our egg.

We also had to create a story about it and give it a name.

This activity was really challenged.

You had to racked your brain trying to think of a way to save it at the first launch.

Four out of seven eggs survived the fall in this activity, thanks to a great teamwork, combining our creativity and putting our ideas together.

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success."

—Henry Ford

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14.ROLES PLAY This roles play was about bullying or cyberbullying stories.

There were eight team, each one had a different story. Every stories had a bad final. We had to play the story as it was, and re-play again, but at this point we had to change some episodes to change the end, and turn it into a good one.

1.After a hot night with her girl-friend Angela,Karl took some very sexy photos of her. Karl joins Mark and Simon for a drink and after 3-4 beers they decided would be a nice joke to post the photos on facebook.Angela is at work and her boss call her showing her the photos.Angela is shocked,leaves the office and the buiding very nervous.On the way back she stopped at a pharmacy.She didn’t appear home in the evening…

Solution:

1 When Karl wanted to post the sexy photos on internet Simon stoped him and gave advice about how the pictures could destroy Angela’s mental health, reputation and could loose her job.

2. When Karl posted the sexy pictures of Anglela, Simon called her and met with her. Simon explained the situation and offered help to delete or report the photos.

He gave Angela moral support and helped her mentally to not do anything stupid.

3. When boss saw the pictures with Angela he called her in to the office.

He Suggested to help her, to take a day off and think about what she could do to delete the photos, he gave her moral support. He was nice to here because she was really stressed and anxious.

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14.ROLES PLAY 2.Mike,George and David are in a summer camp and they are in a room watching some photos on Mike’s facebook profile from a previous exchange.They have fun and at a moment Mike leaves the room to bring some coffees. Mike tried previous evening to have a romance with beautiful Elena and David envy him,so very fast David sent from Mike’s profile a message to Elena saying she is a whore.Elena gets the message,became ashamed and left the camp without saying to anyone.Mike finds out the story and in the evening beated David in the toilet.David is found 2 hours later full of blood.

Solution :

Elena doesn't leave the camp, but she goes to speak with Mike to ask if he wrote the message. Elena finds out that Mike didn't sent the message. Only who had access to Mike's phone was David so Mike decided to stop his friendship with him and ignore.

3.Anna is a nice teenager from Ukraina wanting to get a job like a dancer in Italy.She is checking every day some help or offers on internet.One day,she got a message from a guy,Carlo,who proposed her a job in his bar in Napoli and promised to cover her the flight ticket.Anna is now in Napoli airport meets Carlo and Giovanni,his friend and go to the car.Anna is blindfolded and taken to an apartment where the guys tied her and

throw her in a cellar.She only could sent a short what’s up message to her friend Elena in Ukraina that said “ Help me “

Solution:

Anna should tell someone where she is

going and who offers the job before going

to Italy, and actually she can say NO to the offer for the job 24

14.ROLES PLAY 4.Dimitris is a nice guy that love to dance and drink.At the intercultural evening he mixed a lot of spirits,got drank and fall asleep.Some participants draw naughty things with a marker on his forehead and took some photos that were uploaded on facebook group.Next day all the participants bullyied him and only one waiter, Diana that didn’t know what’s the problem tried to speak with him.Last time he was seen was in the evening running to the forest

Solution: 1.Diana goes and sits near Dimitri and asks his side of the story. She talks to him. And tell him that if he needs a friends she will be there for him. She’s not part of the “bully” group or a witness anymore.

5.Hasan is a Turkish participant in a youth exchange in Romania but representing Germany.

Second day Monika and Jakub from Slovak team called him “terrorist” and posted on facebook group a photoshop picture with Hasan with a bomb. Hasan complain to some colleagues but the Slovaks continue to laugh and bully him. Hasan went to Marian, slovak group leader to complain; he is not so cooperant but informed Lothar,german group leader about the situation. Lothar said that he doesn’t care as Hasan is an immigrant and is not from his neighbourhood. Hearing this, Laura, one Romanian participant contacted coordinator of the project, Bogdan to complain that Hasan is bullied.

Bogdan decided to speak with Hasan together with the 2 group leaders but when they went together to his room they found a short letter on Hasan’s bed.

Solution:

The solution is that when the Leader of German group Lothar heard the story he decide to take action and go to speak with Monika and to explain that Hasan is just a participant of a youth exchange and that the way she treated him wasn’t right. So she needs to apologize to Hasan for the mistake. The story will end here and youth exchange will continue.

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14.ROLES PLAY 6.Suzana is a very handsome young English teacher in a highschool.She has a wonderful body but she is quite decent.Tony and Daniel, 2 of her students took with the smartphone some photos and short videos of her during a party they had at school and create a “video chat” fake profile of her and sent immediately the link to the director,Mr.Duncan.Without knowing anything about fake profile,Suzana is invited to director office where he tries to harass her.She slaps the director into face and ran.In 2 hours the general inspector and a policeman visits the school….

Solution :

The man was brought to the station and he was sentenced 6 month in jail, while the students who created the mess, were suspended from school.

The teacher got counseling because of the trauma and she got her old peaceful life back.

7. Adrian and Peter are schoolmates in last grade.In their class Radu,a gypsy fat boy,was just transferred.Adrian and Peter started to bully him posting photos of him and writing unpleasant comments on instagram.From all the colleagues only Rita tries to help Radu asking the others to remove the photos and apologise but Adrian and Peter continue bullying both Radu and Rita on the way back from school.Next day before first class,bullying continued and at a moment Radu took out a knife and cut Peter on his right hand…when the teacher entered the classroom

Solution :

After the first episode of bullying, Rita talks to the teacher and the next day she decides to make a lesson about bullying 26

14.ROLES PLAY 8.Maria is a young journalist in Belgrad, very active civic and all the time trying to reveal corruption of local politicians. This year she had a proposal to join a political party from opposition to candidate as a local councelor and after discussing with her best friend and colleague,Ivan, she accepted.After the elections campaign starts, someone posted on facebook a

sexy photo of Maria since she was participated in a beauty competition during university,5 years ago.There are a lot of comments and the leader of the party removed Maria from the list.Ivan and Zoran,boyfriend of Maria,discovered the author of that post was a corrupt politician,and without telling to Maria,they set his car on fire.Next day,Maria was found by her friends raped in the park.There were no more news about her in local media….

Solution 8:

Zoran and Ivan tell to Maria they discovered who is the author of that post, and that they want to set his car of fire for revenge.

But Maria disagree. She says that is a bad idea, the better things to do is to call the police.

Zolan call, but the police man tells him that he can't help them. After, they'll discover that police is corrupted too.

So they decide to talk with major authorities.

After a few months of investigation, the corrupted politician get arrested.

Maria receive a new proposal, for her amazing job she become the local councelor.

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14.CITY BOUND IN BUSTENI AND HIKING During the city bound in Busteni we were splitted in 5 mixed international teams. We started to discover the city. Each team had a Romanian “angel”, a person from Romania who can guide everyone through the city and help us with the tasks that were given to us.In facts, each team had to complete some tasks:

-Find a name for your group

-Take 3 photos/grouo with things you like and 3 photos with things you don’t like

-Take 3 photos that are “local” and 3 photos that are “European”

-Meet locals, find the story the soldier statue in front of the station and take a group photo with a local

-Find the market and buy a fruit or a vegetable and take a group photo with it

-Be at 11:30 in front of the SILVA HOTEL

-Be back at the pension ready for activities at 16:30

After finishing the tasks we went hiking until we reached the “Howling Waterfall”.

The view there was amazing and it’s was something definitely worth seeing.

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16.POSTERS We made four posters to represent what we learned about bullying and cyberbullying, and to send a strong message through these image. There aren't too many elements in the posters. We wanted to keep them simple, to don't get confused by too many details, we did it because we think is the best way to remember the meaning. We want people to know how be a bully, a bullied, or just a witness, is negative for everyone.

Cyber-bullying : statistics about cyberbullying. In this poster are showed where people are cyberbullies

Bystander effect.

The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological claim that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present; the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is that one of them will help.

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16.POSTERS European Statistics : 
 statistics about bullying. In Europe on average 18% of European young people had been bullied via the internet.

25% of Estonian students have experienced cyberbullying

30,6% Latvians school kids report they have being bullied

20% cyberbulling victims in Romania

In Lithuania bullying shows that 36% of the boys and 32% of girls were bullied.

In Italy 22,2% of victims say that they have been bullied on the internet

15% of student are bullied in north macedonia

In Poland children reporting bullying are 28%

18% of European young people had been

Cyberharassment rates for young people across the EU member states ranged from 10% to 52%.

End bullying before it ends a life:
 Consequences of these violences goes to: depression (75% of victims), crying crisis (54%), self harming (32%), take in consideration suicide (46%)

Some people can took their life to escape from bullying or prejudice.

Over 16% of students seriously consider suicide, 13 percent create a plan, and 8 percent have made a serious attempt

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15.ROMANIAN NIGHT Romanian Night was one of the best night which 40 participants from different countries enjoy the food, dance and the happiness of Romanian night!

Romanian cuisine is based on diverse blend of different dishes from several traditions with which it has come into contact, but it also maintains its own character. It has been mainly influenced by Turkish and a series of European cuisines such as the Austrian cuisine, German cuisine, Greek cuisine, or Hungarian cuisine as well as culinary elements stemming from the cuisines of the Slavic-speaking countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

There are quite a few different types of dishes, which are sometimes included under a generic term; for example, the category ciorbă includes a wide range of soups with a characteristic sour taste. These may be meat and vegetable soups, tripe (ciorbă de burtă) and calf foot soups, or fish soups, all of which are soured by lemon juice, sauerkraut juice, vinegar, or borș (traditionally made from bran).

The category țuică (plum brandy) is a name for a strong alcoholic spirit in Romania.

they also teached us about culture and everything about them country so Romania si really nice country and people should visit it.

We also tasted sarmale, a roll consisting of minced meat or another sutffing like vegetables and rice, wrapped in cabbage or vine leaves.

And home-made mici (also know as mititei) (both Romanian words meaning "little ones" / "small ones") is a dish from Romanian cuisine, consisting of grilled ground meat rolls in cylindrical shape made from a mixture of beef, lamb and pork with spices, such as garlic, black pepper, thyme, coriander, anise, savory, and sometimes a touch of paprika.

It is often served with french fries, mustard and murături (green pickled vegetables).

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17.FLYERS First flyer presents that you can't take back the bad words you said about others. So, be kind, because words don't rewind. This flyer is totally about our project. Social media is where cyberbulling takes place most, and the users should be more encouraged to speak out and spread the antibullying through their own voices.

Bullying stops here, anti-bullying starts with you!Â

This green flyer is designed by our Romanian participant Gabi. Flyer is designed in green as the main colour of the logo’s project. It describes the antibullying process in social media and encourages people to hit the "Delete" button. After that - be brave and smile.

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18.FORUM THEATRE Warning! This is a theatrical play. The things contained in it does not reflect the opinion of the authors. All the similarities with persons,places situations from the real life are purely coincidential.

What is Forum Theatre?

Forum theatre is a type of theatre relates to the engagement of spectators influencing and engaging with the performance as both spectators and actors, termed "spect-actors", with the power to stop and change the performance.

The issues dealt with in forum theatre are often related to areas of social justice with aims to explore solutions to oppression featured in the performance.

Main characters in our forum theatre are: victim, ally of the victim, aggressor or oppressor (that is the only character who can’t be replaced), ally of the aggressor, and neutral.

Our goal was to change the story to reach a good final, and, if it necessary, to turn the neutral into an ally of the victim.

The story: Act 1 Charachters: teacher (neutral), Henry (aggressor), Aron (victim), classmates (allies of the aggressor), Elly (ally of the victim).

A new guy arrives in the school, his name in Henry. The teacher introduces him.

Teacher: Good morning students this is henry the new collegue, he comes from a good family, he has good grades and he is a very good child be nice to him. Stay here please. Lets start the lesson.

Henry: What is this? Why is there an animal in front of me? I can’t sit next to him! He is too dirty!

Aron: What? WH..... What do you want from me? Lets be friends.

Aron tries to handshake!

Henry: I will not touch You! It is aginst my higiene! You are dirty, ugly and completly unacceptable!

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18.FORUM THEATRE Aron: But....

Teacher: Silence please!

Henry takes a seat behind him and starts the bullying.

Aron: Please stop it! Why do you do that?

Classmates joins in bullying by throwing paper balls.

Elly defends Aron.

Elly: common guys! it is my colleague.

Teacher: Did something happen?

Aron: No! nothing happened

Teacher: This was todays lessons. see you tomorrow

Teacher leaves and Aron tries to leave too. Henry block him.

Act3 Henry: Where are YOU going?

Aron: I am going home.

Henry: Where is that? Under bridge?!

Aron pushes Henry away, and try to run through the door.

Henry lets him go and kicks him.

Henry: I hope you won’t be here tomorrow. Don’t make my life awful.

Henry leaves.

Elly: I must call the director...

Act 4 Charachters: Philip(dad), Henry

Evening after school.

Phlip: Boy, I tell you, the world is going down... Do you know what happens in the Municipality Council today? Those lefties voted that our town will accommodate 2000 Syrian refugees! Imagine – 2000 monkies on the streets of our beautiful city...

And we have to accomodate them, feed them, clothe them, on our own money! What’s wrong with this world?

Sooo. How was your day? Is the new school good for you?

Henry: NO! It is terrible. There is a gipsy in my class. I have to sit in same room with a dirty ANIMAL!!!! He smells like a whole farm in front of me!

Director calls to dad Philip: Yeah. My son just told me the situation in that school. I don’t understand that. it is unacceptable. *they start to argue*

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18.FORUM THEATRE Act 4 Charachters: Henry, Aron, classmates, teacher

End of the classes. No teacher in the class.

Henry: Why are you still here? isn’t there a special school for creatures like you?

Aron: I can’t stand you anymore! what do you want from me? You are stupid or what?

Henry: What did you just said?!?!!!

Slap! And the fight starts. Classmates film the action.

Clasmate(Otto): Facbook-time.

Classmate(Armand): Instagram too!

Aron is on the ground and getting beated up. Henry runs out.

Teacher comes in.

Teacher: What happening to you?

Aron: Nothing. I just fell.

Aron is hurt and he leaves.

Act 5 Charachters: Aron

Aron is in his home. Sitting on a chair, browsing through the Facebook.

He sees a video of him.

Aron: Oh my God! They have completly ruined my life.

Aron tries to call mom - No answer; Farher - No answer Aron: Why they doesn’t answer? I am alone in this world.

Call Friend - No answer Aron: Shit! What should i do now?

Aron: Oh... I know a solution for this...

Aron: No one gonna miss me anyway.

Aron goes for a pills, and play with them. End. We don’t know if Aron takes the pills.

Solutions: -There were different solutions. Some of the interventions included the intervention of the director during the fight. In facts, when Henry was hitting Aron, Elly goes directly to the director to let him know what was happening in the class. After that, the director try to change Henry’s mind, but with no results.

-Another one is that, with Henry’s dad try to change his son’s mind too. Because the way Henry think is influenced by his dad.

-So the spectators try to change the behaviour of Otto and Armand (classmates).

With the intervention of another classmate, the decide to not put the video online.

By this point the things change. Because no one takes joke of Aron online.

The main point: With this experience we learn how important is to take action, and more than everything that even the smallest action can completely change the final of our stories, and maybe, it can saves a life.

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19.VIDEO Bully(ed) The video starts whit a bullying episode. The victim screams to the bully “what’s wrong with you?” Then we go back in time, during the bully childhood. At the beginning everything looks alright, until her parents start fighting. Her father got addicted to alcohol, while her brother to drugs.

Sebi Cyberbulling This video shows how bullying can affect your life from virtual (youtube) to reality and back.

The video starts with a famous influencer taking jokes about this guy, Sebi, who makes video on YouTube in English, but he has some difficulties in speaking correctly.

After that the video become viral and people start to comment under Sebi’s videos with mean comments.

They insult him or put the emoji who is throwing up.

This behaviour online from the users has consequences in Sebi’s real life.

In fact, people start to take jokes of him not just on the internet but in real life too.

The video ends with Sebi screaming “why me?”

Inside out This video is very deep. It starts with a scene in black and white of a tree shaped by the wind.

For the entire duration of the video are alternated scenes of the boy who is bullied and scenes that shows who he feels inside.

At the end of the video the tree falls.

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20.INTERVIEWS We ask to the participants of the projects soma questions about bullying.

We had a lot of opportunities to discuss about this topics and that is what we figure out.

1.Did you had any education or knowledge about bullying before this project?

Ivan, from Macedonia:

“Generally I knew what bullying is, but I never had an education about it and I think it’s really important for schools to have classes about bullying so we can have more impact on people”

2. Have you ever experienced bullying?

Monta, from Latvia:

“One morning I woke up with hundreds of messages like “Hey beautiful” , “How much” and I didn’t know what was going on. I asked one of the guys where did he find my number from and he sent me a link from a prostitute website with my picture and my number on it, so I asked the owner of the site to take down the post.”

3. What are the reasons somebody starts bullying?

-Fabia, from Romania:

“Sometimes the bully is a victim himself. He/She can be a former victim of bullying and now reacts.

Can be a person with problems at home, lack of love from their parents or troubled childhood. Also can be a person with mental issues. So when we see an act of bullying we need to be attentive with the victim and with the aggressor”

4. What is the best solution to stop bullying?

Gabi, from Romania:

“The best solution by my opinion would be communication with family,friends, teachers or authorities that can help with the situation that’s happening”

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20.INTERVIEWS We also interviewed some people in Busteni and in Busteni’s school. We talked to the teachers and to the students too.

Why do they bully?

Bullying happens because someone that is aggressor tries to take power over other people by teasing, spreading fake rumours, lying, bullying like hitting, provocation etc.

The agressor often is the weaker one because he try find the person to put on all the anger.

People who bully tend to have low self confidence so they need take over other people who might try do good to others or is good at something. They can be really jealous to those people.

Many people regret and hate being bullied and they think that something is wrong with them. Bullies are waiting this type of reaction and that makes them feel more powerful and more right.

In our cities everyday there is bullied(amount)… people. And the number of people getting bullied is increasing. I have talked many people and they are scared to talk about their true feelings and how they feel about getting bullied. Many of them feel scared to interrupt when others are getting bullied just to protect themselves.

In my life I have seen bullying cases and tried stop them, influencing myself as a strong person I don’t feel anyone being more powerful than yourself.

Draw by Gabi (Gabriel C.)

Can bullying be stopped?

I think bullying can be stopped only if people who are brave step in. It is nothing like the aggressor can stop it themselves or make someone a better person. Bullied ones always will feel like they are a victim. They always will feel like they don’t fit in.

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20.INTERVIEWS I arrived in Busteni 2020 3rd March to interview people and what they think about bullying.

First I interviewed people on the street. Most of people in Busteni think that bullying isn’t that big of a problem and think that it makes children getting stronger.

I used to think the opposite. So I went to Brasov. People in Brasov actually think bullying is a bigger problem, than in Busteni.

About 100% of people said that school should fix bullying and there is a problem in education, because no one is controlling it.I went to school for this reason to talk with teachers and bullied ones. It was weird between what bullied says and what teachers say. Teachers affirmed that situation is not that terrible. Most of basic people I interviewed with having a feeling of narcissistic or bullying personality said they are friendly to each other. That shows that bullies have bit slightly more careless personality or not enough experience of being bullied. Teachers affirmed that bullying is seen sometimes but some of them said it is nothing special that is is just a joke or teasing each other, which surprised me. Out of 7 teachers I interviewed there were only 2 who thinks that in Busteni school Colegiul Ion Kalinderu are any bullies. Kids I interviewed at school had tell they have been bullied in past and only when they stopped caring they get out of situation.

-Arta

Interviews with children who is being bullied.

1.)Have you ever been involved in any bullying situations and why did they bullied you?

1.1 -When people do not understand something in you they judge most of the times.- I tried find people who respect me for who I am, not what they wanted me to be.1.2.Bullied because of being obese and parents divorced.

1.3.I have been in situation where people didn’t liked my hobbies and what I do because I am less girly.

1.4.been bullied because of weight and being shy.

2.)Did bullying continued ?

1.1Most bullying happens between 12 and 15 years and also at young age.

1.2. Bullying continued about my weight all time.

1.3Bullying continued all-time and it wouldn’t stop because I always had different hobbies and different way of seeing things.

1.4.Bullying continued while being overweight.

3.)Worst thing what they did to you was…

1.1I got bullied because my parents got divorced and some kids said my mother left me because I was the problem in family.

1.2.Called her fat.

1.3.1.4.Called ugly and fat.

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20.INTERVIEWS 4.)How do you felt after insults?

1.1I felt like what, why are they saying these things to me.

1.2. I felt brought down and I felt like I had to change something about myself.

1.3.I just wanted to be myself I didn’t care what they think about me.

1.4.I felt worthless.

5.)How you managed get out of it.

1.1Stop caring. I also would share the problem instead of hiding it. You will be like vulcano and no one understand why it is like that.

1.2. I understood that everyone is beautiful and no one should be changed but focus on their dreams and stay real and authentic themselves.

1.3.I accepted myself and started to do things I like to do not what others does.

Cases of bullying and how it went out.

Here are wrote some cases we got told in interviews and in real life as well from people we met in Busteni.

1.) The girl had no father she lived with hers stepmother. She got bullied for it, but the biggest problem was that wasn’t the reason or it shouldn’t be. They made her think like it is the reason. She got called rude words and also teased especially about hers family and that hers dad left them because of her. It left self guilt for lifetime and she was crying to tell me this.

How you should act in this situation: Just ignore the bully, imagine you don’t care even if you do. The bullies have no control over their actions. Also you don’t need these type of people in your life just cut them out then.

2.)I was shy and I got bullied because I was bookworm and I was introvert. I don’t like tell people my feelings, I hate those little talks doesn’t have meaning or purpose and you just do it to be cool and funny. I wanted a deeper talks more educative. I couldn’t find person like this within my school. All hated me because I was always better in school, they also thought I try to act as a good girl to help please the teachers.

How you should react in this situation: Be who you want to be, because in the end only matters what you do, not who you please. There will be always many people who hates you and judge you for who you are even most successful people have those bullies who keep bullshitting them each time they can.

3.)I was bullied because of my weight. I had an eating disorder, but it just went worse because I got bullied of that. Even if I tried get out of it, it wouldn’t help me fight the problem I started hate myself because of those people who called me ugly and fat. They were soo proud of themselves after. I wanted to be like them more skinny and more attractive.

How to react in this situation: If you are fat it is thing you can always change- every time.

There is nothing like those people in school you have to keep them in your life. You don’t need to get told what you need to do, if the current weight makes you happy, if not just change it but not for them, for yourself.

-Arta

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21.CELEBRITIES WHO HAVE BEEN BULLIED Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. the rock) is a famous Hollywood movie star, athlete, comedian that used to fi ght with depression in past. At school he used to be bullied because he was always changing schools and had hard times to make any friends.

Dwayne Johnson to gain more confi dence started to act in theatre and started bodybuilding.

His personality and his mind never really matured from traumatising moments at school. He always kept looking for validation and acceptation. He tried to fight things that didn’t helped him to be better.

How he managed to get out of it and got famous: He battled depression till he was 20 years old, at age of 24 he got kicked out of his football league. He had no money and no home where to live.

It gave him motivation to fight. He said- “I wasn’t going to get back on my feet feeling sorry for myself. I had to pick up myself and keep going and fighting..”: he said.

He started to see life differently. He took every opportunity to get somewhere in his life and not to lose a hope. He started take acting classes he collected himself and did all he could for his improvement in life. He had nothing to lose.

What we can learn from him is if you search for opportunities you always will find them. And there is people who need you as you need them and with their help and you helping them you can go far together. So most important thing is to search opportunities or anything that can help you improve.

She used to battle depression at young age, experienced eating disorder and bullying for hers looks and having a big dreams.

Lady Gaga or hers real name Stefani Germanotta. Even at the beginning on her career she was being called attention whore. When she studied at NYU, there were many haters tried bring her down her work and music. Hers posters got abjected and stomped with legs, there was allot who didn’t support her.

People who love her says “Stephanie, thank you. Thank you for always thinking you are a superstar, for using your cracks to let the light come out more brightly.”

In high school she got bullied everyday for having big dreams. She said: “Only way to get out of bullying is being yourself and don’t care about what others think about you.” Not looking back what people said about her she became accomplished, disciplined and more authentic herself. She says: “Even if the whole world turns their back on you, you always have yourself.” She experienced bullying most of her lifetime and at 19 she moved out of hers family home. She decided to work herself up and singed at bars and clubs. People hated her and called attention whore.

Not looking back on hers past, she is still proud to admit hers past of getting bullied and she isn’t ashamed to talk about it.

“Dont allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded”. It teaches us that there will always be people who hates you in your career and especially if you try surpass them or are better at something that they are. Just don’t show them any affection because who cares. Only what cares is your work and what you can achieve.

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22.PARTECIPANTS AND ORGANIZERS The participants, as said before, were from eight different countries.

There were from 4 to 6 people per team.

The countries involved were: Bulgaria, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland and Romania.

A big thank to these inspiring people who made possible this project that open our eyes and our minds to this topic:

Tolea, Bogdan and Fabi because they were our guides during this project. We, as partecipants, understood that there is a need to talk more about bullying and cyberbullying, because the effects can affect the victims for their entire lives.

Thank to: Arta, Elena, Elfa, Erton, Gabi, Kamile, Lupa and Paula for the realization of this magazine.

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"The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."

“Bullying from real to virtual and back”

Bullying from Reality to Virtual and Back - Buşteni 2020 https://www.facebook.com/Bullying-from-Reality-to-Virtual-and-Back-Bu%C5%9Fteni-2020-110129817256951/

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.