October 16, 2014

"The Colors Behind the Rainbow", Lodz, Poland

“The colors behind the rainbow” youth exchange project took place in Lodz, Poland, between 04.08-13.08.2014 and was focused around the idea of raising the tolerance among youngsters and adults from Lodz regarding people belonging to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community.

LGBTI community situation meets big differences depending on the country- from general acceptance and legal protection by the authorities to the opposite side, apathy, indifference or even discrimination and laws that worsen their situation. In Poland, the statistics show that 66% of population believes that LGBT people should not have the right to organize public demonstrations or should not have the right to be openly gay, according with a 2010 study. This gave us the impulse needed to act!

25 young persons from 5 countries (Poland, Turkey, Spain, Armenia and Belarus) met in FERSO Foundation and, in ten days of different activities as workshops, debates, role-playing, study visits conceived a street campaign for the community of Lodz. The messages were easy and went directly to the people we met: love is a terrible thing to hate!

In the project Armenia was presented by the staff and volunteers of PINK Armenia. The Youth Exchange allowed us to develop competences, become aware of socially relevant topics, discover new cultures, learn new expressions in different languages, and strengthen values like solidarity, democracy, respect to Human rights and human dignity, etc.





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