OURACHIEVEMENTS HUMANRIGHTSEDUCATION ANDADVOCACY

Our campaigns have always aimed to raise awareness of and educate young people on issues relating to human rights. In 2018, our campaign “One for All. All for one” focused on the issues of diversity and inclusion, bringing together young Christians from across Europe and beyond, to think about the challenges faced by diverse societies and how inclusivity, in its various forms, can be achieved in local communities of various dynamics. In 2019, our national scoping study and the local initiatives that followed focused on the topic of youth extremism and ways in which young people can mobilise to combat it

CAMPAIGN“ONEFORALL.ALLFORONE”

January-December2018

In 2018, our efforts focused on promoting diversity and inclusion, and teaching young people across Europe how to build inclusive societies. This was done under the banner of the “One for All.

All for One” campaign, which was funded and supported by the European Youth Foundation of the Council of Europe.

We have achieved this through a series of events and activities that engaged young people from across Europe, as well as a wider messaging exercise, which focused on promoting successful stories of integration and on raising awareness about the suffering brought about by intolerance and populism, particularly for minority and disadvantaged groups. The activities that we organised as part of this campaign were:

The training event “SPOT IT, STOP IT: Media Literacy to Combat Negative Narrative on DiversityandInclusion”(Palermo,Italy,6-11May2018);

Thestudysession“HowisPeacePossible?”(Strasbourg,France,22-26October2018);

The conference “Humanity Reclaimed: Youth Perspectives on Diversity and Inclusion” (Thessaloniki,Greece,29November–5December2018);

Theonlinephotocompetition“Oneforall.Allforone”(September-December2018).

As part of the campaign, we also launched a call for funding and partnership applications for our Student Christian Movements In response to this, we were able to offer support to and partner with three of our SCMs to deliver a number of local events, focused on topics relating to diversity and inclusion:

The workshop “One for all. All for One” (Helsinki, Finland, 17 November), organised in partnership withSCMFinland; The workshop “Practical idealism” (Utrecht, the Netherlands, 26 November 2018) organised in partnership with SCMNetherlands; The weekend retreat and conference “Interrupted by God” (26-28 November 2018, Leeds, United Kingdom), organised bySCMBritainin partnership with WSCF-Europe.

The campaign received positive feedback from our SCMs, young people and donors, and we hope that it planted durable seeds in local movements that are now taking the messages of the campaign forward and acting upon them.

OnlinePhotoCompetition"OneforAll.AllforOne"

September-December2018

As part of the campaign “One for all All for one”, WSCF-Europe organised a photo competition focused on sharing stories of diversity and integration The competition was launched in September 2018 and concluded on 10 December, when all the photo entries were shared on the WSCF-Europe social media to celebrate the International Human Rights Day.

The aim of the competition was to allow students from all over Europe and beyond to express their own visions of inclusive societies, as well as their own stories of integration. Given that a story from a personal perspective can sometimes be more meaningful than thousands of pages of statistics, the photo competition allowed participants to embrace their creative side and inspire those around them to reflect on the meaning of diversity within communities.

The participants who entered the competition came from all over Europe and outside of it, from countries such as: Macedonia, Armenia, Georgia, Germany, Australia, Romania and the United Kingdom. The winners received prizes of €75, €100 and €150, and had their photographs shared in our online and printed publications.

1stPrize-DavidBARBAKADZE,Georgia 'UnityinPrayer',Tbilisi,Georgia

"I took (this photo) in one of the oldest district(s) of Tbilisi which is famous for its unique multicultural nature. This small historic neighborhood is often called as 'center of religions' as you can find mosques, synagogues, Catholic, Orthodox and Gregorian churches next to each other. The directions (on the) sign (in) the photo indicate all(the)importantplacesinthisdistrict,amongwhichyoucanobserve a mosque, synagogue, Georgian Orthodox church and Armenian church.Eachofthesebuildingshaveitsownwonderfuloldhistory,but I think it’s not by chance that all of them are standing in the same neighborhood. For me, the district represents a 'Unity of Prayer'. This is how I also named the photo and why I link it to the theme of the WSCF-Europephotocompetition.Ithinkthestoryofthissmalldistrict in Tbilisi very much tells us about the importance of coexistence and dialogue among different religions, cultures, ethnic groups. And that, how different we should be in our believes, we still can live together as thosethreebirdssittingpeacefullyonthesign."

2ndPrize-AnaMELADZE,Georgia 'Coloursof Life',Batumi,Georgia

"I took the photo during the summer 2016 in Batumi, my favourite city in Georgia. I think that Batumi is really a special city - the 'Pearl of the Black Sea', as it is often called. It is situated in mountainous South-west Georgia on the Black Sea coastline,neighboringTurkey.

For centuries, it suffered many conflicts between the rival powers, while also nurturing complex religious, ethnic, and linguistic identities. Today, though, the city is very proud of its rich diversity and the cosmopolitan atmosphere. Walking in the streets of Batumi you can meet people of different ethnic, religiousandculturalbackgrounds.Thatiswhytakingthephotoofthestreetblockscolouredbychildren hadasignificantimpactonmebackin2016anditstillhastoday.ThatiswhyIthinkthephotoisrelated to the competition topics. To me that photo always represented the hope and love for life. Life that every personbuiltthroughouttheyears,likethestreetsarebuiltbytheblocks.Evenifsometimestheblocksare grey, they may turn into a wonderful colour, if we do colour them. I believe our lives are richer and meaningful with many colours. I believe that the society is stronger with its diverse population and I wish every person (no matter) how different they should be from each other (that they) should live life withdignityandrespect.InspiredbythecityandcontextItookthephotoaimingtocapturethespiritof togethernessindiversity.Inamedthephotoas'ColoursofLife'."

"On the bridge Pont des Arts in Paris, people add locks of different shapes and sizes, thus creating a colorful metal curtain along the bridge. The story and thoughts behind this photo are related with the society, where we live. Like the bridge, we add lockers on it, build relationships, usually several ones, sometimes bonding two lockers at the same time. We cannot unlock ourselves from this net, if the lockers and bonds are many. Likewise, the society... when we includepeopleandtiewithmanybonds,it will be simply impossible to marginalize, radicalizeorpolarize."

"This photograph was taken in Skopje in the middle of September. The photograph title is: 'Imagine a future together'. On the photograph the children are representing the future as and one of them is ''levitating'whichshowsanabsoluteprogress.Behindtheminthebackground,youcannoticeacitylight byEU."