Description
The exact definition and in particular the respect for human rights is strongly contingent on the political and social conditions in a given society. Many of the freedoms that are nowadays a common part of our lives were something the people of Czechoslovakia could only dream about just a few decades ago. The project is about bringing together young people and witnesses of historic events whose lives were marked by the denial of basic human rights. The pupils are meeting the witnesses regularly, work on the documentation of his/her story, discuss with them and reflect how the denial of basic HR influenced their lives. As the students become familiar with the personal touching stories of the witnesses, they realize that human rights are not to be taken for granted but have to be fought for persistently.
Summary of project results
Today, when we have lived in democratic society that cares about human rights for over than 25 years, the younger generation may take that for granted. The project’s goal is to question this notion. Our Neighbours‘ Stories project brought young people (aged 13 to 15) together with the seniors who lived most of their lives during Nazi and communist regimes, when civil and humans rights of individuals and minorities were not respected. Powerful stories directly from people who lived them can make the youth to care about the society and its course. It should help them to understand that they have their own responsibility for the system in which they live. Students‘ teams from three regions in the Czech Republic (North-East Bohemia, Brno, Olomouc region) met 37 witnesses, who shared their life stories with them. There were also representatives from minorities whose stories helped students understand, that minorities need special protection. The teams recorded the narrations and presented them to the public. Thanks to newly developed workshop “Human Rights – Let’s Protect Them!” we teach children to search answers to the questions about the meaning of the concept of human rights, and their impact on the society and themselves through the real life stories. Besides methodology for this workshop, we also developed other methodologies for the project: Methodology for teachers and Methodology for coordinators. These materials help us to spread the project to further regions. In the project, there were participating 147 students and 27 teachers from 24 schools, who listened to and processed 37 interesting life stories, in which human rights were somehow violated. Thanks to the workshop, the students learned to identify this violation in the witnesses’ narrations, and also in other instances they meet in their lives.
Summary of bilateral results