The projects to prevent discrimination are launched

The grant project competition on “Strategies for preventing and overcoming discrimination caused by military conflict” has been completed.  Five projects have been selected following the results of the competition and they  are going to be developed and implemented by the social volunteers  assisting to reduce conflicts caused by discrimination. Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Kharkiv, Kiyv, Sumy, Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast have become the cities and platforms used for the projects implementation. The project implementation period covers 6 months. The start was launched in mid-February 207.

The competition was held within the project “Overcoming the consequences of war in Ukraine together” among the attendees of the training course “Strategies for preventing and overcoming discrimination caused by the military conflict in Ukraine”. This training course is aimed at preparing among the volunteers the multipliers whose field of work is to reduce the conflicts extent caused by discrimination.

Along with military events the intensity of conflicts related to their consequences and discrimination in Ukrainian society is increased. Thus, internally displaced persons (hereinafter referred to as IDPs) often face discrimination in hiring, searching and renting housing. The number of conflicts of IDPs with the authority representatives and state institutions is also increased. Often, soldiers who come back from the war and begin to get used to a peaceful life, find their place in life as well as opportunity for employment and psychosocial adaptation also face reintegration problems in society.

All those projects that have been supported financially are provided to work with conflicts caused by the discrimination cases due to the military actions in Ukraine. The key topic in all five project initiatives is a discrimination of internally displaced persons and conflicts arising in the context of the relationship between IDPs and the host community which includes former and current military personnel and their families.

Despite the fact that all projects are united by one common goal, the methods and approaches to achieve it have been chosen depending on the existing situation and the community’s request. So in Nikopol, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, IDPs often face discrimination when applying to state services and local governments. The project “Formation of the anti-discrimination awareness of social workers, employees of psychological, legal and other consultations in Nikopol and the Nikopol Raion via trainings” is delivered to work with the government service employees who render the services to IDPs and residents. The training program is intended to form the attendees’ anti-discrimination awareness and develop tolerance towards IDPs and other people who find themselves in difficult circumstances and apply to them for assistance. In Vinnytsia  within the project “Take the first step to meet” it is planned to work with the representatives of the authorities and teachers who according to their duty work with IDPs and other vulnerable groups of the population. The training course is aimed to develop the anti-discrimination awareness among the attendees and to reduce their prejudices and  stereotypes.

Equally relevant is the issue of discrimination and violence that are present among the teenagers at schools. So, the volunteers from Kharkiv and Cherkasy have plans to work with teenagers from IDPs and the host community within their projects.  For promoter of the project “Formation of the anti-discrimination awareness among the teenagers via the anti-discrimination trainings” in Cherkassy the major priority is to change the pattern of the young people thinking that is often imposed by an “adult” society in particular to re-settlers and people with migratory background as well as to develop critical and anti-discrimination thinking among the attendees.

Within the project “Non-violent communication at school” which is scheduled to be implemented in Kharkiv and as a result it is expected to decrease the level of violence and conflicts which arose from discrimination in educational institutions of Kharkiv and its Oblast. Throughout this project it will be prepared a group of facilitators consisting of volunteers, HPE psychologists and social workers, as well as former combatants who should become multipliers and knowledge holders in the future. In addition, a guidance manual for giving classes for non-violent communication at schools will be developed.

The fifth project “Spiral of History” which was approved by the international competitive commission to receive grant support combines several components that should be available to a wide audience. The promoters are planning within the project to make a short documentary film which should  be available for viewing on the Internet to create  a positive  image of  IDPs  in response to the personal stories as well as to draw the public attention to the crimes against humanity in the past and now. The idea is that one of the main characters of the film is a representative of the Lemkos re-settlers who has lived in Luhansk Oblast before military actions began, and now leaves for the territory of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblasts. In addition to the film, during the project it should  be prepared a plan for a media lesson which is going to be used to train schoolchildren to  form the anti-discrimination awareness.