Youth Workers start to facilitate their own workshops during #ART4HRE

Groups had to organize and facilitate their own workshops related to the human rights education. Each group, six in total, had to manage it within 20 minutes.

Ø The first workshop was a game Take a Step Forward. The activity aimed to promote empathy with others who are different, to raise awareness about the inequality of opportunities in society and to foster an understanding of possible personal consequences of belonging to certain social minorities or cultural groups.

Simulated characters were: the son of a head of local bank which studies economy in the university; Arab Muslim girl with very religious parents; HIV positive gay man. The workshop included asking questions/considering the character and discussing stereotypes.

Ø During the second workshop, participants explored a new poetic tool for promoting human rights . Haiku – Japanese short poetic form was discovered. Main principles of creating a haiku were explained. Then, participants had to write a haiku within 15 minutes. haiku must've consisted of 17 syllables in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 on, respectively. The works were diverse and concerned various aspects including: marriage, inequality, religion, freedom of expression, freedom and peace. Results were amazing!

Ø Title of the third workshop was called Turn Discrimination into Appreciation. Objective of the third workshop was to transform the stereotypes about discriminated groups into positive thinking and to turn discrimination towards certain groups of people into positive perception. The groups had to discuss stereotypes of certain marginalized groups and afterwards, they had to analyze the best features of them.

Ø The next group asked participants to talk about the 1st time they spoke out about the human rights violation. This was a platform for people to share their personal experiences with

human rights. The group was making the stories anonymous because there is power in hearing others share your story. Certain emotional atmosphere was created as the stories were personal, sometimes intimate and from the early childhood. Some people found anonymity nice, while others found it impersonal. It was powerful to see and hear people share their experiences.

Ø Fifth group decided to organize the Forum Theatre. The group made a short presentation of the Forum Theatre, explained the idea of this activity and the way other participants could get involved in it. Participants had an opportunity to participate in the performance voluntarily.

Ø The last workshop was dedicated to art. The session aimed to equip youth workers with

knowledge about visual art and illustration. Various illustrations were created on the topic of human rights. Facilitators presented their artworks too.