On Feb 2014 NoBorder will partecipate as partner to “Words are Stones” an european training course developed by our partner npo Lunaria (www.Lunaria.org) and supported by YAP/European Union Programme. The training course is focused over racism and – online/offline – communications such as speech hate and more. The aim is to share awareness and instruments to fight the raising xenophobia, especially thru the active action of young activists, volunteers and youth trainers.

Antiracism and EU citizenship : in the nowadays society it has been noticed an exponential growth of racism, xenophobia and intolerance and the consequent display of these approaches is leading to the set of discriminative practices toward people coming from other cultures. Racism is set on the idea that somehow there are people who are inferior and superior because of their distinctive and inborn biological characteristics which “define” them. The result of these belief is the growth and the spreading of prejudices and stereotypes toward what we tend to define different. Still in this process is the verb “define” that assumes a tricky meaning, since it supposes that there are people who take the power to define other people attaching labels and defining invisible borders. Racism is also facing an evolution and a consistent wide-spread thanks to the ICT and new technologies. In fact even if ICT can be considered a powerful tool to monitor the racism events and to denounce it, can be used in the same time to promote racist approaches and philosophies. Internet in fact can easily offers a protective veils to cover racist approaches, leaving somehow the feeling that we have racism but no racists – a noun without a subject, a consequence that nobody caused, a system that nobody operates. It consistently contribute to the creation of new victims without having the possibility to identify the perpetrators. The young people are the more exposed to the on-line racism, to its advertisements and messages and since often they don’t have enough tools to decode the messages or to appropriately denounce them, they can be considered the most vulnerable category in front of this wide spread. For this reason it’s fundamental to work on the educational field of young people who are the more close to ICT and new technologies giving them new tools to decode messages and to promote opposite approaches based on the respect of differences and on the promotion of the intercultural exchange. It’s the equivalent to make the young people operate as active citizens, able to contritely intervene in their life. In the awareness raising process, peer educators, youth workers and representatives of youth centres, play an important role. In fact they are the most closer to the young people, are the ones who can really present the problem and to share new tools to fight against it.  They can furthermore keep the young people involved in antiracist processes, supporting them in the creation of anti racism campaigns and in their grass-rooted promotion at local and international level, through the use of ICT tools.

Urban development: the outskirts of the EU capitals, even if distinguished by specific peculiarities, are marked by common problems, like the lack of green spaces, the scarcity of services and of public transports, the unauthorized buildings and the sky keepers, without or with scarce common spaces to activate the socialization. All these aspects make the local inhabitants feel excluded and separated by the rest of the city, closed in an sort of artificial “ghetto”. This is a big risk because the belief to live in an “unprotected” and abandoned environment make people resigned and not interested in doing something concrete to improve these places. Furthermore it’s also important to remember that many suburbs are becoming the living places of different, migrant communities. This lead to the creation of multicultural environments where the different communities don’t necessarily share their backgrounds and experiences and risk to become the stage of tensions and un-acceptance  of differences. The consequences of these behaves, can fluctuate from the use of prejudices and stereotypes to the violent display of racist events.  For these reasons it’s fundamental to concrete intervene in these places and to activate new tools to fight against the racism spreading. The first step is to raise awareness among the young people and their families since only spreading information it’ possible to develop a different forms of commitment and of ownership based on the idea that each person is unique and can actively contribute to well-being of his/her local community. The second step in this process is the practical implementation of campaigns, started and promoted by the young people so that the antiracist message can be shared in a sustainable, long term and deep-rooted perspective also in other local communities, starting a multiplier effect.

PARTNERSHIP: 9 EU organisations
LUNARIA Italy
NO BORDER LINE Onlus Italy
CITIZENS IN ACTION Greece
ÚTILAPU NEMZETKÖZI ÉPÍTŐTÁBOR HÁLÓZAT Hungary
ASSOCIACION PARA LA MEDIACION SOCIAL EQUA Spain
GENCLIK SERVISLERI MERKEZI Turkey
UNIVERSITUR ASSOCIATION Romania
INEX SLOVAKIA Slovakia
ICJA FREIWILLIGENAUSTAUSCH WELTWEIT E.V. Germany

DATES: 16th – 22nd of February 2013 (7 working days)
PLACE: Wiki Hostel, Via Colle Casette 34, Zagarolo – Roma, ITALY
Wiki Hostel, is 30 km from Rome, it is located in Zagarolo, in the beautiful south of Rome area so-called Castelli Romani. Wiki is just 15/18 minutes from Ciampino train station, where is located the low cost airport of Rome Ciampino.
Wiki Hostel web site : www.wikihostel.it