Meet the Balkanese!
24June – 7 July 2013, Media competence centre, Berlin
Background of the project
More than ten years have passed since the last war in the Balkans. Times have changed and further violent conflicts at large scale are unlikely to happen at the moment. But just like politics and society, people’s minds are often still influenced by (in-)direct experiences of war and violence. Cooperation across (physical or imagined) borders is rare or often remains superficial. Some say even say that “war continues in people’s heads”.
Lasting peace in the Balkans, and in Europe as a whole, will only be possible when people of all countries work & cooperate peacefully together, which also means when existing forms of stereotypes and prejudices, nationalism, racism and discrimination are challenged, fought & minimised, and replaced by full respect of “the other” (e.g. nations, people, ethnicities, minorities, gender,…) as well as respect for individual human rights and principles of non-violence in general. This is a particularly daunting, delicate and sensitive task in countries which have suffered the ravages of war in their recent history.
Prejudices, stereotypes and various forms of racism and discrimination occur in everyday life basically all around Europe and are not necessarily linked to a recent history of violent conflict as in the Balkans. The project therefore emphasizes the exchange of participants from different backgrounds and seeks to take into account a European but also local dimension and address the issues from different angles which may exceed the particular perspective on conflicts in the Balkans.
Venue of the project
In cooperation with youth clubs, schools and other organisations helping young people the institution “WeTek Berlin g.GmbH” organizes projects in the fields of new media, culture & education. Its “Media Competence Centre Pankow” is the main centre offering opportunities for educational institutions, social workers, youth & children in the region of Pankow to work with media. It regularly offers concepts, ideas & models for children, school pupils, young adults, seniors & families how to use the media domain attractively and successfully
Whoever wants to be creatively and artistically active can come along to the workshop or the pottery of the house.
Other projects include: workshops for social networks, safety in the web, Cybermobbing, compulsive gambling online and other similar subjects, trickbox, handicraft work, building activity, holiday project-weeks and lots more.
Aims and objectives
In the frame of the seminar “Meet the Balkanese” volunteers will discuss about the history, culture and present situation in the Balkans and learn methods such as how to make and utilise stop motion videos (trickbox), comics & videos in order to counter & overcome existing prejudices & stereotypes and present positive stories of the Balkans, as well as to encourage more young people from Germany to visit those countries. The participants will be encouraged and guided to create a board game on the Balkan subjects, which will be included in the camp promotions for the upcoming next camp season.
Recruitment of participants
We are looking for motivated participants with great interest in the seminar topics and who are preferably activists from SCI branches and partner organisations or active in other organisations with a similar working background and philosophy. All participants selected for this project must meet the following criteria:
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be 18 years old or older (16 years for Germans)
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be able to work in English language
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preferably be active in the organisation, know the capacity of the organisation and have the opportunity to be active in the future;
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commit to report thoroughly the content of the project to other activists of sending organisation (if any);
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commit to actively participate
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be interested in working with new media
Applications should be sent by e-mail to your sending organisation in your country and will be decided quickly.
A group of 14 participants will be selected on the basis of the profile outlined above.
Financial and practical conditions of participation:
All costs of the programme (including food, accommodation, and internal travel in Berlin) will be covered by SCI. In addition, some modest funding will be available for those from Balkans who cannot afford the full travel (please inform your placement officer if it is really hard for you to pay the full travel costs yourself and we will try to help).
Registration fee: dependent on the sending organisation.
Contact
If you have any questions regarding the project and your application, don’t hesitate to contact your sending organization.
We are looking forward to your application 🙂
Please download this application form_Meet the Balkanese and send it to [email protected]