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Description
The aim of the project is to support education about human rights as well as to counteract discrimination, intolerance and hate speech in schools. The project is addressed to teachers, students, pupils and seniors in the city of Kielce. According to the Ombudsman''s 2020 report, over 90% of people surveyed declared that they had no direct experience of discrimination in the past year. This indicates little knowledge of what discrimination is and when human rights are violated. Our office is located in at 7 Planty Street – the site where the Kielce pogrom of 4 July 1946 began. The educational experience we have gained during the last six years shows that the knowledge of the inhabitants about the causes of the pogrom is still low. According to research, more than two-thirds of Poles (70%) are of the opinion that anti-discrimination education should be carried out in schools. One of the important elements of educational activities for human rights is intergenerational education. This is why we will organise meetings with seniors and young people, where seniors will talk about their experiences with human rights violations, from the perspective of witnesses or victims of discrimination. Then a presentation of the accounts of these meetings will be shown during an event for the school community. An important aspect of education is to make the audience more sensitive to the consequences of hate speech. We will organise a conference for teachers dedicated to human rights, focused on recognizing hate speech in school. In our educational activities we will use the methods and tools of the Understanding Your Human Nature Programme based on research by Philip Zimbardo.
Summary of project results
Project "Man, you have rights!" was implemented by the Association. Jan Karski from December 2021 to October 2022 in Kielce. Our goal was to carry out educational and activating activities for human rights and counteracting discrimination, intolerance and hate speech. The recipients of our project were students from schools in Kielce and the region, as well as seniors. We were guided by the message of Eleanor Roosevelt, who said that "human rights begin in small places, right next to the house, in places so small that they cannot be seen, where people look for opportunities for equality without discrimination." The small place where we implemented the project was our headquarters in the house at ul. Planty 7 - the site of the Kielce pogrom on July 4, 1946, a blatant denial of the idea of human rights.
Educational workshops, conducted for 26 groups of young people, were based on psychological knowledge regarding the mechanisms of stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination contained in the Program for Understanding Human Nature of prof. Philip Zimbardo.
We also held three intergenerational meetings, during which groups of young people met with seniors who talked about situations in which they encountered human rights violations, witnessed discrimination or were victims of discrimination themselves. Two of the meetings ended with the presentation of reports from the meeting to other students, which took various forms.
The project implementation was different than planned in the application. In agreement with the Operator, the contract was terminated on October 31, 2022. This decision and the unrealized parts of the planned events and initiatives were influenced by three reasons:
- remote learning in schools lasting until March, after which school principals were not open to carrying out classes other than those resulting from the program
- confusion around the so-called "lex Czarnek", which had a destructive impact on the reception of our workshop offer
- our involvement in helping refugees after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which involved the time of our team, especially the launch of the "Ukrainian House" - a community center for refugees: mothers and children who live in Kielce
This last factor in particular forced us to change our approach and include project activities in the implementation of specific actions for human rights that were radically threatened as a result of the war. In connection with:
- We organized two educational meetings for adults and two meetings for children, Ukrainians, talking about human rights
- We invited participants of intergenerational meetings and anti-discrimination workshops to help as part of the "Ukrainian Home", especially in organizing holiday trips for Ukrainian children and mothers
- Instead of the other two intergenerational meetings, we organized two "Freedom and Peace" concerts, which are a space for Polish youth and children to meet with victims of human rights violations, Ukrainian children and youth in the space of artistic creation as a platform for understanding.
Participation in workshops on Human Rights resulted in an increased understanding of what human rights are and an attitude of empathy and interest in the fate of other people. As the teachers told us, the change resulted both from the way the workshops were conducted and the impression made on the students by the history of the Kielce pogrom, which we mentioned when talking about our association or presenting the place where the workshops were held.
Intergenerational meetings resulted in an initiative on the part of teachers and students, as a result of which three events were organized with the dimension of educational activities on the subject of human rights: performative reading of "Letters from the Ghetto", the "Daffodils" action at the Academic High School in Kielce and the involvement of students of the Słowacki Secondary School in the preparation of the ceremony. anniversary of the extermination of children from the Kielce Ghetto.
Cooperation on the effects of intergenerational meetings showed that intergenerational meetings brought a similar effect: an increase in understanding of what human rights are and an attitude of empathy and interest in the fate of another person. Teachers also noticed an increase in trust in older people as they can share their life experiences.
As a result of the activities, students of two schools: the Academic Secondary School and the Mechanical School Complex became involved in direct assistance to victims of human rights violations, engaging in the operation of the Ukrainian House, which we opened on March 24, 2022 - a community center for mothers and children fleeing from war-torn Ukraine.
The result of an information campaign, within which an information meeting about the project was organized for the Kielce Youth City Council, resulted in a council meeting on human rights, which in turn resulted in the "Appeal of the Kielce City Youth Council regarding the introduction of the subject History and Present addressed to the Pedagogical Councils of Kielce secondary schools" . The councilors write there, among other things: "We oppose exclusions, distortion of facts and negative influence on shaping students'' worldview. Every school should remain a safe place."
Organizing the workshops resulted in the creation of a platform for cooperation in the field of human rights advocacy activities. Thanks to our relationships with teachers and management, the following schools in Kielce have become our collaborators: the Mechanical School Complex, the Economic School Complex, the IT School Complex, and the Secondary School of Stefan Żeromski, Primary School No. 7, School and Kindergarten Complex No. 2, as well as the Polish Cadet Secondary School in Lipiny and the School Complex. KOP in Szydłowiec and the Youth City Council of Kielce.
An important aspect was to reach people who were victims of their denial - refugees from Ukraine - with education about human rights, as well as to involve participants in other activities in helping refugees from Ukraine.