""MO-TI"" - a mobile team against discrimination, for dialogue and promotion of solidarity

Project facts

Project promoter:
GENERATOR(HR)
Project Number:
HR-ACTIVECITIZENS-0008
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€4,846
Final project cost:
€4,658
Other Project Partners
NANSEN DIALOGUE CENTRE(HR)
Programme:

Description

Due to the observed increase in the number of people suffering from Covid 19 and people in self-isolation and the appearance of concrete examples of stigmatization, discrimination and violations of their rights in Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties, the project will take urgent measures to inform citizens about people  suffering from Covid 19 and people in self-isolation.

We will organize a mobile team for dialogue, developing empathy, breaking down prejudices and calling for solidarity and assistance to sick fellow citizens, from September to November 2020, in order to preserve social cohesion and emotional health of sick people and prevent discriminatory behavior of communities and individuals.

The direct beneficiaries of the project are the general population of citizens of local communities in which the number of people suffering from Covid 19 or people in self-isolation occurs or increases, and who themselves do not belong to this vulnerable group. After the interventions of the mobile team, we expect more significant mobilization of the target group where citizens will replace stereotypes and prejudices with empathy and responsibility and will activate and show solidarity by acting properly and providing various forms of assistance to patients and people in self-isolation.

The indirect target group of the project are people with Covid -19 and people in self-isolation who will be indirectly affected by the project by preventing discriminatory and stereotypical patterns of behavior and attitudes of the general population and providing the necessary assistance to achieve effects: maintaining mental health, lack of stigma , discrimination and human rights violations.

The Generator  will take on the role of coordinating the project and the activities of the mobile team, and the partner organization NDC will conduct consulting and supervision of project implementation.

Summary of project results

The main goal of the project is to make citizens aware of the problem of stigmatization of people with coronavirus and people in self-isolation, as well as to promote solidarity with them. Through the project, we managed to talk to 450 in 14 interventions and examine 260 people from the Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties. At the very end of the project, we analyzed the collected data and published them on our website.
The results of the research showed that our action was useful, as 74% of our respondents claim that talking to a mobile team helped them, and as many as 91% of them claim that this is a topic that is important to discuss.
In direct work with target groups (citizens from the area of ​​Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Srijem counties), we noticed that people are much more tolerant and solidary if they have or have had a case of COVID in the family. In addition, many citizens are negative towards the patients at the beginning of the conversation, but also towards the coronavirus in general, and at the end of the conversation they still reach the moment of awareness.
Most of the surveyed citizens, especially the elderly, experienced the conversation with our team therapeutically and had the need to tell us their story and their problems that they or their loved ones dealt with during the pandemic period.
The biggest problem we saw in talking to citizens was that they equated physical and social distance, and in that respect our conversations were the most effective.
We also noticed that there is a correlation between the degree of tolerance and the size of the place where we surveyed citizens, and it turned out that in small communities people are much more tolerant and solidary than in larger cities.

Information on the projects funded by the EEA and Norway Grants is provided by the Programme and Fund Operators in the Beneficiary States, who are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of this information.