Description
The project addresses the issue of insufficient awareness among young Bulgarians of human rights, tolerance and countering racism and xenophobia. The project aims at empowering young people to be actively involved and mobilize public support to reduce intolerance and racism. First, 5 local NGOs will be selected in 5 cities willing and capable of organizing awareness campaigns. Second, a training programme to build the capacity of the NGOs will be developed. Then 3 three-day training seminars for 20 people each will be carried out. The participants will be trained human rights, EU citizens’ rights, intercultural dialogue, practical skills to organize campaigns and use the new media. Third, mixed teams of volunteers will be set up to prepare local awareness-raising campaigns that will continue for 2 months. The project will benefit the young people and NGOs involved as well as the local communities by raising awareness about human rights and greater tolerance.
Summary of project results
The lack of awareness among Bulgarian citizens about human rights, including among young people in particular, has had a negative impact in many respects. Nationalistic groups have taken effectively advantage of the lack of awareness about citizens’ rights. What is more, there is no consistent policy targeted at young people to overcome the negative stereotypes acquired prejudices. The expected change from the project will be to establish a new concept of staging campaigns involving on an equal footing the members of minorities and the majority and not reduced to the dissemination of information materials only but also providing for facilitated training processes. The developed new concept of staging campaigns, applied in practice by 8 local organizations in 8 localities set the beginning of a network of organizations, sharing and willing to continue to apply in practice this concept in future. The impact on the NGOs involved in the project included developing competences for planning implementation and assessment of campaigns to reduce racism, xenophobia and intolerance; raising their capacity for attracting and motivating volunteers from different ethnic groups; promoting their networking. The impact on the young people targeted by the campaigns was not limited only to raising awareness but also involved the building of a set of competences for communication and work in a multicultural environment. Hopefully these outcomes will not leave them indifferent when they are confronted with discrimination, violence and hate speech. For more information, see:
www.youthinaction.cega.bg
Summary of bilateral results