Workshop “Diversity for peace” took place on April, 21-27, 2016 in Kherson. Young participants from Kherson, Mykalayev, and Odessa worked together with the new inhabitants of Kherson – migrant from Donetsk and Lugansk. Together they studied history of the Southern Ukraine, collected an interview with the representatives of different nationalities, shared knowledge about their families and, finally, tried to answer the question about modern Ukrainians: “Who we are?”
The program of Workshop consisted of lectures, trainings, learning tours, quests and practical work. In the first day participants told about their families, their origin. The group was multicultural, and we heard stories about families, which united people from Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia, Poland, Turkey. Also this day became very useful for the participants due to the «Clouds» exercise, which was offered by trainer Maksym Eligulashvili: the «clouds» marked with the words «my family», «my country», «my friends», «my profession», etc. were placed in the floor, and on the first step participants had to choose that “cloud” that was the most important for them now. Then trainer took away this «cloud», and young people had to search new values, which would hold them and gave force to live. This exercise became most emotional for young people – migrants, because they lost their home already, but they noted that due to this workshop they found new friends and new support.
Next step was the task «20 Me». Young people described themselves by 20 words and 20 images reflecting their origin and lifestyle. It was a good reason to think about our self-identification and answer the questions - who we? What does hold us together? What can divide us? As the result words «I am Ukrainian, I am European» got new sense for young people.
During next days young people worked in groups. Together they studied historical and cultural heritage of Kherson and knew about different people who built and developed this city. They made video, pictures, and met with the representatives of different nationalities during the «Living library». Certainly, participants tried foods of different nationalities as a part of their culture, which were offered hospitably by Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Koreans, Azerbaijanians.
The practical results of the collaborative work of youth during the workshop “Diversity for peace” was exhibition and documentary play «Don’t take me off from a tree» (obviously, there is a genealogical tree). For these 7 days participants became so close and friendly to each other that decided to keep in touch after the project. They created common group on Facebook to share the impressions and new ideas.
The project «Diversity for peace» is financed by the EUROPEAN YOUTH FOUNDATION