In the period 21-22 January, Mariya Rachinska, as a guest facilitator, conducted a workshop on the harms of hate speech towards refugees in Cairo, Egypt. The workshop was organized by MAAT for Peace, Development and Human rights and supported by Anna Lindh Foundation. The main objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness among participants about hate speech, its types and how to combat it and to create multicultural awareness campaigns on knowledge, respect and acceptance of diversity of cultures and traditions.
During the first day, the participants got to know one another using the Elevator Pitch activity by sharing their names, nationalities, age, motivation to join the workshop and expected learning outcomes. The group was formed by young people from Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen and Palestine. The participants had to define “What is an aware-raising campaign”, “What is a refugee”, What is hate speech” and “What is freedom of speech/expression”. Through an interactive activity in which participants were asked to brainstorm, working definitions were created. Further, participants discussed the differences between migrants and refuges and identified reasons behind leaving one’s country and threats and challenges that refuges face in the host countries. The discussion was aimed at identifying and setting the pathways to combat hate speech and discrimination for the creation of more engaging aware raising campaigns. The first day finished with an acting activity in which participants were dived in four groups and had to present four articles from the United Nations Universal Convention on Human Rights.
During the second day, the discussions continued to identify active participation and traditional and alternative tools for the active engagement in communal and societal matters. The participants, divided in four groups had to use a 7-step approach to create an advocacy and aware raising campaign by also choosing the correct tools to promote the campaigns. In the second part of the activity, participants working in the same groups had to think of ways how to disseminate and promote their aware raising campaigns. Through the use of a 6-step approach to crowdfund their activities, participants brainstormed and created implementation plans. The workshop concluded with a deep and emotional evaluation session in which participants came back to their “Elevator Pitches” and shared their contributions and what they have learned.