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Positive action for intercultural curiosity and understanding
Start date: Aug 1, 2014, End date: Jul 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Extremism and xenophobic movements have been gaining a stronger foot hold around Europe, including in Sweden. Difficult times, like the recent recession and refugee crisis risks providing these movements with still further leverage. In line with our organizations aims we wish to work actively to counteract these movements, by arguing the positive effects of pluralism and influences from many different cultures and peoples. Through this project we celebrated intercultural dialogue, friendships and diversity through providing workshops, seminars and programs focused on encouraging intercultural awareness and curiosity in other peoples and cultures. In doing so we have provided opportunities to school classes, youth groups and the general public to challenge the views and information they meet in traditional and social media as well as in their daily lives in regards to "the other". This has been done by: - holding workshops for over 1100 pupils in 17 schools, spread over 11 cities - arranging 25 public activities in 3 cities with a total of over 350 participants - creating 5 online events - executing a poster campaign resulting in 650 posters visible in 15 cities/towns around Sweden 11 public and on-line events were centered around 6 internationally recognized days - Intercultural Dialogue Day, International Day of Tolerance, International Volunteer Day, Zero Discrimination Day, World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development and International Day of Friendship. This EVS project also coinsided with a 10 month project funded through the Anna Lindh Foundation - "Room for Everyone". This project had a similar aim and one of the EVS volunteers planned and delivered the EVS project workshops to school classes and the general public as part of the Room for Everyone program in three cities around Sweden. The volunteers in this project were all young women from the Czech Republic, between 21-30 years old with a whish to come to Sweden and learn Swedish. The three EVS volunteers have spent a total of 28 volunteer months working with AFS staff and volunteers in developing and delivering the workshops and events described above. As a result AFS now has an established work shop kit and a group of AFS volunteers in different parts of Sweden experienced in delivering them to school classes and youth groups. We also have an extended contact network of schools interested in workshops about culture, intercultural meetings, the effects of stereotypes and social inequality. Thus we are able to continue this work after the end of the project. In the planning and execution of workshops/events AFS staff and EVS volunteers have been in contact with/cooperated with a range of other NGO’s as well as schools and the project has given us the opportunity to strengthen ties with several of these actors. This will enable us to get better reach and impact with events and actions we organize in the future, as well as give us the opportunity to partake in events and actions organized by them. As part of the project we thoroughly investigated the possibility of establishing the European Trimester Program in Sweden, but unfortunately our conclusion is that it is too difficult to make it work within the Swedish School context for any of the schools we cooperate with to be willing to consider it. Unfortunately we had to exclude the panel debate part of the project due to lack of time and a need to focus the project. WE chose to focus on direct events furthering intercultural curiosity and understanding and chose to exclude the vents focused on increasing exchange opportunities, as we felt that would give the project mor immediate impact at a time when immediate action against the spreading of xenophobic ideas is necessary.

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