Training Course 'No Hate Bootcamp'

A very interesting project took place during 17July 2018-24 July 2018 in Dworp, Belgium in Youth Centre Hanenbos. The project was financed by European Commission, within the framework of Erasmus Plus project. The hosting organization was Belgian “We Speak LOVE”.

The programme gathered 33 talented social activists from 9 countries to develop strategies to COMBAT HATE. The participating countries were: Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Moldova, Poland and Portugal. The participants, through leveraging the efficiency of non-formal education around the activities fighting hate speech and discrimination create their mission to be NO HATE SPEECH AMBASSADORS.

This training course was very important since higher incidences of violent extremism, hate crime and hostility towards different social groups, especially manifested through hate speech, are becoming worryingly frequent in our everyday lives. Moreover, the rapidly-changing environment and massive rise of ubiquitous communication technologies have pushed Internet to become a place to communicate and spread hate, bigotry and vitriolic language.

The aim of the project was to establish and reinforce international cooperation and exchange of good practices between the youth workers and organisations.

The youth workers, via executing various activities in their national groups after participating in the training course will transfer competences gained throughout the first activity to the respective target audiences.

For each and every represented community a specific local plan was developed, where a closer relation between the participant and the partner organisation was created. Building on the knowledge and competencies gained during the 1st activity, the 2nd part of the programme will aid the participants shape a repertoire of skills related to allying non-violence strategies and choosing the right dialogue for their local communities.

The second phase of the project will take place in Georgia 1-7 October, 2018.

Three participants from “Educational and Cultural Bridges” were represented on the training course: Arpine Kosanyan – the President of the organization, Liana Ohanyan- General Secretary and Vahe Hovhannisyan – local youth leader of the NGO.

Participation of “Educational and Cultural Bridges” NGO and its representative’s was very important since the NGO is an active member of NO HATE SPEECH National Committee and implements many projects on combatting HATE SPEECH online and offline.