Hello! We are Emma, Ramon and Abril and this July we participated in a training thanks to the association Fundació Catalunya Voluntària. The “Multipliers for peace” training took place in Stratoni, Greece, from July 17 to 29.
Although Peace and Human Rights are very generic topics, we have had the opportunity to learn from them and know how to promote them with each small non-formal education activity in which we have participated together with people from 9 different countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, Italy, North Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Turkey, Georgia and Cyprus.
From the first activities to break the ice to the last ones that went deeper into the cliché, a very strong connection and a team atmosphere was created with all the participants. We’ve gone from talking about the injustices of each country, to dealing with all human rights and dancing Vogue in one session.
The training schedule was from 9:30 to 11:00 and from 11:30 to 13 in the morning. In the afternoon, we started at 3:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It is true that it may seem like a lot of time, but the fact of doing dynamics that involve physical activation activities and teamwork make the time pass very quickly.
In addition, it is important to emphasize that the dynamics of discussion and debate with the whole group or in small groups allowed us to get to know each other and deepen the views of different countries and people with various backgrounds and experiences.
At the general level of the program, during the first two days we focused on getting to know each other to break the ice and get to know our colleagues. As an example, one of the dynamics consisted of getting to know the studies, hobbies and work of the other participants. Each participant had to fill in a section of another at random and at the end, with this activity, you had the possibility to get to know aspects of 4 other people and to be able to find shared interests.
From here, the next 6 days were divided into 3 different parts with 2 days for each part:
- In the first phase, generic and personal stereotypes were worked on. Throughout these activities it was very important to make an introspection towards oneself to find out which stereotypes we have conceived and how these affect the rest of society.
- In the second phase we enter the process of “deconstruction”, a long process in which we look for the origin and influence of society on the stereotypes in order to treat them from the root.
- In the third phase, we dealt with the concept of the narrative influenced by stereotypes and analyzed several examples. After carrying out the activities related to this last section, we were able to identify the inclusive narratives such as the famous “Yes, we can” by Barack Obama in 2008, of the exclusive or discriminatory narratives that we can find examples of in the speeches of Donald Trump or other political parties.
We are very grateful to have been able to enjoy this experience and everything we take away from it. We 100% recommend participating in these types of projects that open the doors not only to new knowledge but also to new countries and friends.