"Fostering Tolerance" Program
One of the priority directions of activity for the EAJC is the realization of programs aimed at the development of international and interfaith dialogues, as well as fostering tolerance among youth. One of the central programs in this direction includes a number of projects on tolerance that are being carried out in a partnership with the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine (CNCU, Executive Vice President – Josef Zisels, and Executive Director – Anna Lenchovskaya). These projects include the international children's summer camp “Roots of Tolerance,” Clubs of Tolerance, as well as other seminars and educational programs.
In 2002, the annual children's summer camp “Roots of Tolerance” started its work. The camp uses a unique method of submersion: according to its concept, all participants live each day as if they were representatives of a new culture. The camp also holds an Independence Day, a Memory Day for the tragedies of Ukraine's peoples, Human Rights Day, and Citizen Day. The goal of the project is to foster interethnic and interfaith tolerance in children and youth, to counteract xenophobia, to form and active civil position in representatives of national communities, and to spread knowledge about the national and religious diversity of Ukraine. Natalia Bakulina has headed the camp in recent years. Each year from 100 to 200 children from different national communities rest and learn at the camp, including Ukraine, Belarys, Moldova, countries of the Southern Caucasus, as well as child refugees from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somali, and other countries. Natalia Bakulina has headed the camp in recent years.
For futher information, see:
In 2004, the project “Clubs of Tolerance” was started under EAJC aegis. The top motive for their creation was to keep contact with the children who had been at the “Roots of Tolerance” camps. The first such club began its activity in Kyiv, in December 2004. An international network of camps formed in 2006, and is currently active in 5 Ukrainian cities (Kyiv, Lviv, Simferopol, Mariupol, Zaporizhya) and in Chisinau, Moldova, with EAJC support.
The goal of the clubs is to foster the values of civil society in teenagers, to form an active attitude, national identity, and to prepare leaders of the national movement. The “core” of the clubs consists of young people representing different ethnic communities, who have taken part in the summer camps “Roots of Tolerance.” The visitors of the clubs study the history and culture of different peoples in depth, and study elementary psychology and pedagogics. The program also includes a training school for the “Roots of Tolerance” camp, a discussion club, a debate club, choreographic and musical groups.
The CNCU and the EAJC also organize various seminars, schools, public events, and other enterprises dedicated to fostering tolerance.
For futher information, see:
- Seminar for international children's camp "Roots of Tolerance" counsellors (Puscha-Vodica, Ukraine, February 2011);
- Press conference on the results of the "Steps Towards Each Other: Antidiscrimination education for young leaders of national communities and representatives of local authorities in the Crimea and Chernovitskaya Oblast" project (Kyiv, Ukraine, January 2011);
- Youth forum "Etnotolerance as a format of communication for contemporary youth in counteracting xenophobia" (Kyiv, Ukraine, November 2010);
- Seminar for future journalists in Zhytomyr (Ukraine, November 2010);
- Seminar for future journalists in Ostroh Academy (Ostroh, Rivnenska Oblast, Ukraine, November 2010);
- Young leader's school "Steps Towards Each Other" (Chernovtsy, Ukraine, November 2010);
- International Tolerance Day in Tbilisi (Georgia, November 2010);
- International Tolerance Day event in Kyiv (Ukraine, November 2010);
- “Tolerance and Dialogue Between Different Nationalities and Religions” Seminar (Bakuriani, Georgia, July 2010);
See also:
Interview of Josef Zisels: "We work more for the future than for today" (International Tolerance Day interview, November 2010).
For more information, see the website of the project "Space of Tolerance."
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