‘InforMigration’ was held in Bansko, Bulgaria from the 24th April – 2nd May 2018. Its very first youth exchange, Hidden Voices ran the project in partnership with Alternativi International.
The project was made up of 39 young people from the UK, Bulgaria, Spain, Greece, Estonia and Romania.
The objectives of the project were as follows:
- To understand the processes, reasons and effects of migration.
- To gain a better understanding about climate change and its social, economic, political and environmental consequences;
- To promote a positive attitude, acceptance and understanding towards refugees and migrants;
- To help young people better understand what hate speech is, to distinguish it from freedom of expression, and to provide ways and channels to report it online;
- To inform young people about how they can effectively combat hate speech towards refugees in a peaceful way;
- To introduce young people to the Council of Europe’s No Hate Speech movement and;
- To promote tolerance, mutual understanding and dialogue between young people of different nationalities.
The youth exchange educated participants in a logical order, by introducing them to the topic, before discussing the key causes and effects on local to international scales.
Different informal learning methods were used, including workshops, discussions and debates. Each country also hosted an intercultural night, during which they shared their typical cuisine, traditions and customs. We also used the Youthpass certificate, to motivate participants to take an active role in each activity.
We created an open platform to encourage healthy debate and discuss differences in experience. Using holistic approaches and treating the participants as peers from the first day started the ball rolling – from there we worked with participants to achieve not only a great experience for all, but also a ripple effect in social action!
As an organisation, Hidden Voices recognises the importance of investing in tomorrow’s leaders. That is why we invest our time and expertise on projects such as ‘Informigration’.
Overall the project was a great success and we have many more to come!
To see what to expect on our projects please check out our YouTube where you will find daily videos of the project!
