REYN Training in Belgrade, Serbia

23rd and 27th of June 2014

Embracing Diversity - Creating Equitable Societies trough Personal Transformation

Trainers:

• Zorica Trikic, MA, ISSA Senior Program Manager and Romani Early Years Network Coordinator

• Jelena Vranjesevic, PhD, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade University

Participants:

• There were 28 participants from 13 countries:

• Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Italy, Belgium, Latvia, Ireland, Ukraine, Bolgaria and Hungary

With amazing people in the wonderful atmosphere in Belgrade

We did:

Day1. We’ve learned about ourselves: the common portrait of participant

• Direct and honest• Volunteer• Humanitarian studies

(philology, psychology, sociology, pedagogy)

• Active• Lifelong learning• REYN member =)

Day1. We’ve learned about problem solutions

Naming(giving a proper name

for the problem)

Voicing (active involvement

trough dialogue)

Building allies (we cannot solve it alone,

we need team)

Day1. We’ve learned about stereotypes and prejudices by playng “Derdians” game

• Stereotypes have real power• Prejudices include strong

emotional relations• Prejudices are resistant to

change• Stereotypes are unjustified

generalizations• We jumped into stereotypes

about “wild” and “illiterate” derdians even being aware of power of prejudices

Day2. We’ve learned about DIE model

• We usually jump from description of fact (what we really see) to interpretation of it without knowing the real situation and than we evaluate it so that we easily can come to discrimination

• Instead of DIE model more close to truth is making assumptions about probable reasons that cause fact

Interpretation

Evaluation

Description

Day2. We’ve learned about “Blaming the victim” mechanism by “Building towers” game

• “Blame the victim theory” places causes of social problems in one who is suffering, and not in characteristics of his living conditions Problems are explained/solved without changing the conditions that create them.

• Paradox of competetive individualism is in belief that the personal gain is the most important, that the others are less important, which hinders the development of individuality.

Day2. We’ve learned about oppression and it’s

manifestations • oppression matrix;

• explicit/implicit, conscious/unconscious oppression;

• the cultural/institutional and individual level of oppression

Day3. We’ve learned about openness by playing “Fruit game”

• To avoid drama – separate feelings from thoughts

• Focusing on our feelings about otherness

• Development of intercultural sensitivity

• Risk factors in intercultural learning

• Needs inventory

Day3. We’ve learned about “Building allies – how to be an effective ally”

• Empathy (quality listening, focusing on other’s needs, reflection of other’s feelings, noticing other’s physical and emotional state)

• Effective ally (knows what’s opression, understands situation, responses to target group, expects support from other allies, knows that he/she is responsible for humanizing society, has his/her own identity, has patience and good sense of humor)

And some useful tips from training provided by Zorica-dawn:

• Build allies• Share responsibility• Awareness• Focus on needs• Don’t use position either/nor• Openness • Always ask yourself: what will make life more beautiful?