TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Louise Papadoperakis
Youngsters need to know their human rights and know that they must take responsibility to protect themselves and their peers. As they become aware and active in this cause, the message travels far and wide, and someday universal human rights will be a fact, not just an idealistic dream. Hate speech is more than just harsh words. It can be any form of expression intended to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or class of people. It can occur offline or online or both. It is something that each young person has witnessed in one form or another. Discrimination and prejudice surround them in schools, on the
internet, in the street, and in some cases even at home. When young people get involved in volunteerism and youth organizations dealing
with youth issues, working on the topic of human rights as well as their violations is inevitable.
This project directly addresses that topic. Education of young people, learning about their human rights and how to defend and protec them, as well as inspiring them to become valuable advocates for tolerance and peace. Throughout this international experience, they will be equipped not only with knowledge regarding Human Rights but als with practical skills and knowledge on combating hate speech.“Speak up for Human Rights” is a KA1 Mobility for young people, which consists of one main activity - a Youth Exchange, a seven-day international activity to be held in Marrakech, Morocco.
Specific objectives to be achieved with the implementation of this Youth Exchange are the following:
◊ Gaining knowledge about Human Rights and the UN declaration of Human Rights.
◊ Gaining knowledge regarding Hate Speech (online and offline), and its types.
◊ Exploring the role of youth in combating hate speech and possible means and actions for prevention of hate speech.
◊ Getting basic skills in campaigning (online and offline)
◊ Improving the digital competence of all participants (Social Media Management, Graphic Design skills, Video editing, etc.)
◊ Improving public appearance skills (Rhetorical skills, body language, writing a speech).
◊ Creating an online publication (Booklet) with theoretical input and methods used during the activity.
◊ To inspire participants to become more active in their community and work further on the topics important for youth, fostering their activist spirit.
This intrenational youth exchnage gathered young people from 18 to 30 yo coming from 7 countries :
AFAQ Morocco
Coconut Italia Italy
Young Volunteers for Humanitarian Aid Turkey
Udruzenje Kibitz Kolektiv Serbia
ASOCIACION MUNDUS - UN MUNDO A TUS PIES Spain
ASSOCIATION VOIX D’ENFANT RURAL Tunisia
MI HI For Training And Development Egypt
The learning methods used are all non-fomal : gamification, debates/discussions, world-cafe, outdoor activities, workshops in groups, role-plays online campaigns...
The particpants had to work in teams or individually and aftrewards to share with the whole group their inputs in order to create a rich interaction and stimulate the discussions.
The training was buid in a progressive way: starting from definition of the concepts that would be used during the youth exchange, strimulate everybody's experience and knowledge on the topics until they had to set up real situations to face human rights issues in real life.
The activities were a success since all of them interacted to create a collaborative environment, free of speech and left the training with positive feedbacks and ideas for further collaborations!
I was the trainer / facilitator for the whole youth exchange for the sessions : from the creation of the pedagogical content, the session running until the final evaluation.