DISSEMINATION ARTICLEYouth exchange Say NO to

discrimination

The youth exchange "Say NO to discrimination" had, within its objectives

- To empower participants and enable them to recognize discrimination and to improve knowledge about different forms of discrimination.

- To enable participants to reflect upon and to address key values related to discrimination, tolerance, human rights.

For our dissemination phase in the local communities, we decided to focus on these two objectives, as we believe it is very important to be able to distinguish when there is discrimination from when there is none, and therefore to recognize it. But also, reflect on it when it has been recognized.

TAKE A STEP FORWARD

During the exchange we carried out an activity called ‘Take a Step Forward’ in which each participant was assigned a role, and according to it, answer (in their heads) the questions the trainer asked all participants. In the event that the answer to the question was ‘yes’ according to that role, participants were to take a step forward, whereas if it was negative, they should remain in their place.

The assigned roles represented every social group, minority and people in different situations. These are an example:

- You are a 17-year-old Roma (Gypsy) girl who never finished primary school. - You are an illegal immigrant from Mali.- You are an unemployed single mother.- You are the son of a Chinese immigrant who runs a successful fast food

business.- You are the girlfriend of a young artist who is addicted to heroin.- You are an HIV positive, middle-aged prostitute.

Some of the questions/sentences we asked are the following:- You have decent housing with a telephone line and television. - You have never felt discriminated against because of your origin. - You can go away on holiday once a year.

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- You can go to the cinema or the theatre at least once a week. - You can use and benefit from the Internet.- You feel that your competence is appreciated and respected in the society

where you live.

This activity was the one that struck us the most because we could see in a practical way a representation of the society in which we live, where some have too much and others don't even have the basic needs to live. It is the activity that made us reflect the most during the exchange and that is why we decided to put it into practice with young people of our age.

After finishing the activity, there were all sorts of feelings on the part of the participants, as many had advanced and others had hardly moved from the line from which they had begun. We asked some of those who had participated and this is what they told us:‘It's been very frustrating to see people going all the time, every time the trainer said something, whereas I've only been able to take one step.’ - Anna

‘When I couldn't move forward nor even with my basic needs, I realized to what extent the human rights of these people were being violated.’ - Almudena

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‘The exercise fully shows our society; a society divided by classes. The higher classes could always move forward, the middle class had stayed in the middle of the course indicating that there were benefits they had and others that did not and the most disadvantaged classes are the ones left behind.They fall behind in the game, but also in social life, seeing how everyone develops but them.’ - María

‘In some sentences it has been difficult to answer and decide whether or not to take a step, which makes me think that we may not know the most disadvantaged classes and what they have to suffer in their daily lives. However, it hasn't been hard for me to guess what roles people who were always moving forward could have.’ - Alexa and Adelina

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‘There is always someone discriminated against and it is up to us to normalize it or fight stereotypes’. - Águeda

In conclusion, the activity has made us experience and realize the inequalities of certain communities and minorities within society and allows us to be one step forward in the fight against discrimination.

Authors: Mar Palomares and Lucía Ródenas from Spain.

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