TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Anastasia Oikonomoula
Worldwide, there is an unprecedented crisis immigration of people to other countries. The largest after the Second World War. The immigration is due to the efforts of people to escape from the Syrian war and other disasters. The UNHCR estimates that more than 65 million people have moved while one million of them are refugees who moved in 2015 to EU countries. Huge efforts made by the EU to support refugees. Υοuth organisations and educational institutions can contribute in these efforts by organizing activities for refugees and cooperate with international organisations in order to maximize the impact of their work and raise the awareness of the general society by tackling xenophobia and islamophobia.The improvement of
the quality of youth workers and educational institutions and combating of racism against refugees, islamophobia and xenophobia are main objectives/ priorities of Erasmus plus and also of this project.
Main aim of RE- ACT project is to train youth workers, educators and representatives of organisation in basic principles, tools and methods to organise initiatives for refugees in order systematically to increase the supporting mechanisms of refugees and create a solidarity network of organisation that will offer their services to support young refugees.
RE- ACT project is includes the following phases
1. Preparation of organizations of Greece, Italy and Turkey
2. 9 day training in Greece for 30 activists, youth workers with main subject
"Τraining of youth workers on tools and methods to support
young refugees and tackle Islamophobia - Xenophobia"
3. Organize a Local Raise awareness campaign in Larisa (6 September)
4. Organize and support local and European actions for supporting young Refugees. (on going process)
30 youth workers, teachers, educators and volunteers from Greece, Italy and Turkey took part in this project.
For this training we used methods such as
*advocacy workshop
*simulation games
* energizers, ice-breakers and team building activities
*creative presentations
*buzz groups
*brainstorming
*reflection groups
*excursion and study visits
*Video workshop
The activity produced a Youtube video that aims to raise awareness on fighting discrimination, islamophobia and xenophobia
https://contactaidorg.wixsite.com/react/video
Participants also developed and implemented activities during the European Action Day against Islamophobia and Religious Intolerance
https://contactaidorg.wixsite.com/react/actions
For this training I was full time trainer steering the group dynamics and the ongoing learning process of the group. I was also a lead trainer for the following activities:
*team building activities during the first day that also included name games and the fear-hopes-contributions activity
*workshop of introduction to Hate Speech to the participants. During this workshop the group discussed the definition of Hate Speech and explored different kinds of hate speech and worked on real cases from national context and were introduced to the No Hate Speech Movement Campaign
*workshop on developing Action Plan Campaign
During the other activities of the project I was a co-trainer and I also had a supporting role in the reflection and debriefing activities.