Blog

Project: Unity Against Hate 

Date: 02.12.2024 - 08.12.2024

Location: Arcus, Romania

In December 2024, participants who were 18 years and above got to participate in the training course “Unity Against Hate” in Arcus, Romania. The course provided the participants with skills to combat hate speech. 

These were the project's objectives:

👉Understand the origins, forms and impacts of hate speech, in particular the relationship between hate speech and hate crimes.

👉Develop skills for planning and implementing campaigns and actions aimed at combating the causes of hate speech and hate crimes.

👉Strengthen their skills to address hate speech offline and online and to contribute to the elimination of stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination and racism faced by various groups in the participating countries, especially minorities, including refugees and migrants.

👉Improve the use of various media, especially social media, as tools to raise awareness about hate speech online and offline.

Two of the participants shared some thoughts on their experience: 

Chrysanti:

It was my first Erasmus+ program and thank you for making it seem so easy to participate and not stressing me out for a minute. This was very important to me.

I will say that I did not feel unwelcome at any time during the program nor any discrimination for my not-so-fluent English from anyone who participated in it. Another point that was important to me was that we had a different mentality and our own communication codes, certainly with our country, and yet we understood each other simply and humanly with people who did not even speak the same language. And I say this because the level of understanding and humanity was enormous in this project and there was love from people I met for the first time (and I should say something like a complaint) that in my country I do not get such treatment every day even though we speak the same language.

I felt like I was being heard, that my opinion mattered, and that I was loved by people I had just met.

In closing, I would like to say that my whole life has changed, I have a different perspective and I hope to go on a larger volunteer program by the time I'm 30, as well as go on as many Erasmus+ programs as I can.

Dora:

It was a great experience, I got to meet amazing people from all over the world, got to know the Romanian culture and learnt how to recognise and act against hate speech online and in real life. I would encourage everyone to participate in similar projects and expand their horizons. I want to thank everyone at hyp, that works to make such interesting projects possible! 

The project is co-funded by the European Union.

Do you want to experience this unique opportunity? 

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