by Phiren Amenca volunteer Alexandra Bahor
Phiren Amenca in a co operation with Tom Lantos Institute and the March of the Living (Élet Menete Alapítvány) organized a one day pilot training course about the Roma Genocide, Remembrance and Education on the 17th of May, in Budapest.
The main aim of the training was to raise awareness of the possibilities of non-formal education about the Roma Genocide, the capacity-building of Roma and non-Roma youth leaders and multipliers in their work on remembrance, Holocaust and human rights education in order to challenge stereotypes, antigypsyism and racism.
The course introduced theoretical approaches as well as the new toolkit by the Council of Europe “Education for Remembrance: The Roma Genocide”, and linked it to the participants reality and own experiences.
What happened during the training?
As an introduction we used the method Dosta! from the CoE toolkit COMPASS. The participants made three groups (related to their identity) then held an open discussion about how to campaign for the recognition of the Roma Genocide, in order for it to not happen again in the future.
After this exercise we had an expert, Andrea Szőnyi, Senior International Training Consultant from the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. Her presentation gave participants new information, tools, resources and methods about Holocaust Education and how to adapt testimonies in formal and non formal education. (More information at http://sfi.usc.edu/ and https://sfi.usc.edu/education/roma-sinti/en/)
During the afternoon workshops we introduced also the The Roma Genocide Remembrance Initiative 2014. For this initiative, ternYpe – International Roma Youth Network and its partners gather 1000 young Roma and non-Roma from all over Europe around August 2nd 2014, marking the 70th anniversary of the remembrance day of the Roma Genocide. The initiative aims at raising awareness among young Europeans, civil society, political stakeholders and decision-makers about the Roma Genocide, as well as about the mechanisms of stereotypes, antigypsyism, and current challenges of racism, hate speech and extremism in Europe.
In the long-term we would like to run trainings on the Roma Genocide and in Holocaust and Human Rights Education on the local and international levels which would also support a network of trainers and youth organizations in this context. We aim to support individual and institutional follow-up initiatives of the participants and their organizations. We especially want to support small initiatives that address remembrance on the local level, but also current issues of stereotypes and racism.
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Tom Lantos Institute (http://tomlantosinstitute.hu/hu)
Élet Menete Alapítvány (March of the Living) (www.motl.org)
Phiren Amenca (www.phirenamenca.eu)
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