Say NO to violence

Say NO to violence This e-book is the final product of the LTTA held in Ryglice, Poland under the terms of ‘Just be humans- say NO to any forms of discrimination and violence� Erasmus + project.

This e-book presents the aims and the content of two interactive project workshops led by experts.

The short-term exchange of groups of pupils in Ryglice, Poland was held from 18th to 22nd November, 2019. The exchange was organised by Zespół Szkół Ponadpodstawowych im. prof. Czesława Majorka in Ryglice. The meeting was attented by students and teachers from the partner countriesHungary, Italy, Portugal and Turkey. The main topic of the meeting was ‘Say NO to violence”.

‘Addressing attitudes towards asylum seekers and migrants through social understanding and reliable knowledge in the context of schools’- workshops led by two experts in the field of migration from INTERKULTURALNI PL Association in Cracow.

The main aim of the workshops was to increase students’ awareness of the problem of asylum seekers and migrants in Poland. Although Poland does not represent the Promised Land for refugees and migrants, the issue must be taken into account to provide young people with reliable knowledge about people who had to leave their countries for various reasons.

It is often the case that lack of proper education including unbiased facts about migrants causes lots of harmful prejudices, false opinions, intolerance and even violence in the long run. The aim of the project is to teach students from various countries how to say NO to violence and how to be a selfconfident, open-minded and tolerant citizens so these workshops were of crucial importance, especially in the modern world full of hatred and discrimination.

At the beginning, there was a very thoughtprovoking presentation including aspects such as : - the rapidly changing situation of asylum seekers and migrants within 2014-2017 (reasons, consequences, statistical data), - common misinterpretations on asylum seekers and migrants in Poland, - Is there any refugee problem in Poland? (statistical data about the reasons for seeking asylum and number of migrants), - Why do asylum seekers and migrants face hate and discrimination?

- How anti-immigrant hate speech is pictured –based on printed press monitoring - What can we learn about migrants from Polish media? (including false and biased opinions)

After the presentation that was followed by a short discussion, the students were supposed to work in three international groups. Each group had a different role to play.

The first group acted as people who were against letting asylum seekers and migrants live in Poland. The second group played people who were open, understanding and tolerant to refugges. The third group acted as a family from Syria seeking help and probably asylum in Poland.

Each group had to make up opinions according to their social roles and arguments justyfing them and afterwards there was a debate of these three sides.

The students turned out to have very interesting, thought – provoking and even controversial ideas but also a plenty of understanding, tolerance and empathy. Each group was defending hard their arguments giving clear reasons based on real-life situations but finally they came to a compromiserefugees from Syria can be accepted in Poland but they must prove their deserve the asylum by working for the country and sharing their culture and customs with Polish people. In other words, they won’t act as gold-diggers but as regular citizens of Poland.

The workshops turned out to be very interesting, thought-provoking, enjoyable and they had a great educational and cultural influence on the participants- they had a chance to obtain lots of valuable knowledge on the issue and at the same time, the problem taken into account made them more aware and sensitive to these people in need. They were left with the notion that all the people are equal, regardless of culture and that such things as peace, freedom and access to education are not given once and for all. We all can find ourselves in a state of war, poverty or any other forms of violence, discrimination and injustice and that is why we must always remember to be tolerant, understanding and willing to help.

However, our positive attitudes must be also based on solid unbiased education on the subject.

The participants of the meeting in Poland also attended other interactive workshops entitiled ‘Say NO to violence� that were strictly connected with the topic of the exchange. The workshops were led by a very experienced psychologist who is the author of aggression prevention programs for students and teachers and works at Pedagogical University of Cracow.

The workshops focused on: - identifying symptoms of verbal, physical and psychological aggression/violence among teenagers in their communities - identifying how powerful/powerless teenagers feel when they witness or experience aggression/violence in a peer group - discussing the role of witnesses in preventing aggression/violence and identify mechanisms that prevent people from reacting when somebody is badly treated - learning what to say and how to support a person who experience aggression/violence in her community

The students worked in international groups and were given tasks connected with the above objectives.

They performed the activities in a really mature, deliberate and responsible way, very often based on their own or their friends’ experience. These workshops turned out to be very useful and effective but first of all, they made a number of students recall very harmful things that had happened to them in the past (some of them were victims of school violence) and some of them even cried but they also said that these workshops, the understanding and support from the other participants and the psychologist helped them and stood for a kind of catharsis and therapy.

It can be said that the tasks done in a very friendly atmosphere, exchange of opinions and experience taught the students to be more open to the problem of different forms of violence and now they are aware what to do in difficult situations and how to help victims of violence but also people who are aggressive as they also need understanding, attention and support.

All in all, the workshops performed in Cracow and in Ryglice were very effective and contributed to the accomplishment of the objectives of the project meeting.

We all say NO to any forms of violence!

Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This e-book reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.