Programme and action: Youth in Action programme, action 3.1.
Venue: Costesti, Moldova
Dates: 17-24 June 2013
Participants: Antonín Šefer, Michaela Němečková, Petra Fabianová
Project report:
Thirty participants from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine spent one unforgettable week in Costesti, Republic of Moldova. The main purpose of their meeting was to discuss the broad topic of equality. There were two amazing trainers there as well to help the participants understand the topic better and to facilitate the process of learning by using new methods and games, too.
At the beginning, we introduced each other and played a few games in order to create the team environment as we discovered the cooperation among us is crucial. After that, we went deep to the topic of the training course, which was equality. The sessions were held in a comfy, roomy and quiet hotel on the bank of the lake or outdoors and so we had not been disturbed at all and were given plenty of time and space to work on the topic properly.
Our debates were focused mainly on discrimination based on gender or sex, but we discussed the human rights violation of different kinds, too. During one week we learned the difference between sex and gender. Then we focused on gender discrimination in education or employment and were given advice how to face it. The trainers introduced to us a vast number of documents and institutions that we should be aware of when feel like being discriminated. We discussed gender roles within our society and discovered that as we are from different countries the women and men roles in each country differ a bit, too. Then there was the time to learn something about prejudices, stereotypes and labelling people. We had to overcome the stereotypes we have since we are kids as we discussed what is “normal” and what is not, which was pretty interesting.
We also spend one afternoon outside our lake resort and went to the capital of Moldova, Chisinau. During the trip we were divided into groups and were looking for the proofs and evidences of gender inequality, such as advertisements boards, notices, slogans and so on. The other day all of us presented what we found out and debate about it, what was wrong with it and we touched the ethical code and moral values as well. At the beginning, we shortly introduced our NGOs in order to develop our future collaboration and to support mutual plans. The atmosphere was friendly and fun during the project.
Michaela Němečková
