Category: Youth clubs

On 3rd March, Laura and Victoria held a Youth Club lecture on discrimination for Moldovan ten-graders. The topic was chosen to not only inform people about discrimination itself, but also to show them the importance of getting active when it comes to building a more inclusive society and to pursue European values.

In order to make the participants aware of discrimination based on different unalterable characteristics the facilitators had prepared a role play. The students were given a person’s description each and then had to become one with it. Afterwards, they were asked different questions like “Can you travel everywhere you want?” or “Can you easily afford your rent?”. For every “yes” they were supposed to step forward. Due to this exercise it was possible for the participants, to become aware of how discrimination works, of its potential consequences and also to experience vaguely how being discriminated against feels like. This paved the way for a more concious everyday behaviour towards less priviledged people.

For every “yes” they were supposed to step forward. Due to this exercise it was possible for the participants, to become aware of how discrimination works, of its potential consequences and also to experience vaguely how being discriminated against feels like. This paved the way for a more concious everyday behaviour towards less priviledged people.

On 25th February Irena, Alina and Gabriel held a Youthclub session about stereotypes with the focus on gender. The target group were young Moldovans between 15 and 25 who were interested in European values and intercultural education. The main goal of the session was to make existing gender stereotypes visible in order to discuss them, to promote gender equality and to raise their awareness of how it’s possible to create an inclusive society.

On 18th February Irena, Alina and Gabriel gave a Youth Club lecture for young Moldovans on the topic of prejudices. The main goal was to raise the participants’ awareness concerning the power of prejudices. Since it is hardly possible to have no prejudices at all, it is very important to reflect on them and to realize, that most of them are not true.

In order to achieve this goal, the participants were asked to imagine themselves as landlords who had to choose five potential tenants from a list. The way they ranked the given characteristics made them think about their values. Afterwards, the participants had the opportunity to discuss their decissions in the group. During the session, they realized the importance of an open-minded attitude towards each other and that prejudices can be refuted by getting to know each other better.

On 11th February, Irena, Alina and Gabriel invited young Moldavans aged 15 to 25 to their Youth Club meeting about discrimination. The topic was chosen to not only inform people about discrimination itself, but also to show them the importance of getting active when it comes to building a more inclusive society and to pursue European values.

In order to make the participants aware of discrimination based on different unalterable characteristics the facilitators had prepared a role play. The students were given a person’s description each and then had to become one with it. Afterwards, they were asked different questions like “Can you travel everywhere you want?” or “Can you easily afford your rent?”. For every “yes” they were supposed to step forward. Due to this exercise it was possible forn the participants, to become aware of how discrimination works, of its potential consequences and also to experience vaguely how being discriminated against feels like. This paved the way for a more concious everyday behaviour towards less priviledged people.

On​ 20th of January​ Ana and Arancha held lecture for Moldovan ten-graders of a lyceum. This time’s Youth club addressed the topic discrimination on the example of LGBT persons. The main goal of the session was, to enable the youngsters to learn about different forms of discrimination, to identify them in everyday-life and to fight against them in order to build up a more equal society.

In order to make them experience what discrimination might feel like and what consequences being discriminated against might have for the victims, the facilitators screened a film which showed the scenarion of a world in which being gay would be the norm and being straight the exceptions. Due to this switch the youngsters could easily relate. After the screening followed a discussion about discrimination in genaral and about how it can be avoided. Furthermore they learned, how to be more conscious in their daily live.

In our second workshop, we moved on from Identity to Stereotypes. We were lucky to work with the same group as the first workshop. The session started with a quick energizer where we got the students to act out particular ideas (love, peace, trees, vacation etc.). This was a good way to wake up, as our lesson was one of the first of the day.

We then moved onto a fun CSI (crime scene investigation) activity to figure out who committed a theft. Four students were designated ‘suspects’, given character profiles and questioned by the remainder of the group. We had Ion the former convict, Ramina the teenage mother, Svetlanaska the angry Russian and Muhammed the newest staff member. We gave the students limited information for each character as a way to make it more challenging to decide who did it. The group deliberated and discussed the possibility of each suspect.

Following up on the activity, we discussed some theory on the subject of Stereotypes. The group recognized stereotypes applied to them, particularly those based around ‘youth’ given that they are young adults. They discussed the good and bad of having these stereotypes applied and how to avoid them. The discussion involved an impressive short philosophical debate within the students! We certainly did not plan for Socrates and Plato to enable the learning process and so as a result, we had many new interesting things to consider. Looking forward to the next session!

Ana and Arancha organised a Youth Club session for a tenth grade of a secondary school in Chisinau on 2nd of December 2016. The topic was stereotypes in general and aimed on making youngsters aware of different aspects of these. Though everybody uses stereotypes in everyday life, it was important to the facilitators to point out certain risks connected to them. Stereotypes can easily lead to intolerance and discrimination.

To avoid this and to teach the participants how stereotypes work, each of them got a paper with a certain role attached to their so nobody knew which role they had. Then they asked each other questions like “Do I live in a big flat?” or “Do I have children?”. Sometimes the answers connected to a role were mostly similar but in other cases everybody took different preasumptions for granted. Thanks to the game and a discussion in the end of the lesson the youngsters realized that it’s not possible to judge based on a person’s role and that it’s more important to get to know a person. Only being aware of one’s own stereotypes makes it possible to avoid injust valuations.

On 29th November 2016 Irina and Ema held a Youth Club session for teenagers and young adults on stereotypes. Since the latter are practically omnipresent, the facilitators’ intent was to show that in their role as everyday generalizations they are not always bad but also to emphasize, that discrimination based on stereotypes is, of course, highly problematic.

To underline the fact, that first impressions are not always true, the participants were separated in two groups. One group got pictures of different persons and were supposed to note down the first word or phrase that comes to their mind when looking at the picture. The other group got pairs of two pictures each and had to answer questions like: “Whom would you ask for directions?” or “Who do you think is smarter?”. Based on only superficial characteristics, the youngsters often judged wrongly which helped them to reflect on their own stereotypes. The learning process was supported by a closing discussion about the impact of stereotypes.