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Inter-ethnic teenager summer camp “Sources of Tolerance”
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The Annual Children’s Summer Camp ‘Lessons of Tolerance’ created in 2002 for young representatives of the 17 national communities of Ukraine (Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, Moldovans, Volga Tatars, Armenians, Ukrainians, Crimean, Tatars, Russians, Greeks, Buelorussians, Bulgarians, Azerbaijanians). The camp’s mission is to promote the values of civil society, to overcome prejudice and xenophobia, to develop an active life attitude, to form national self-awareness, to create peer-leaders network. |
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History of the project: The idea to develop a program for intercultural tolerance education for teenagers arised from the tradition of solidarity of ethnic dissident movement in the USSR in 1970-1980. Former dissident Josef Zissels acts now as the executive vice-president of the Congress of National Minorities of Ukraine. In 2002 Mr. Zissels had invited best tutors from ethnic minorities of Ukraine and the concept of the camp was developed. |
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Contemporary inter-ethnic situation in Ukraine: According to the monitoring carried out since 1994 by the Institute of Sociology of NAS of Ukraine the character and direction for the intentions of the inter-ethnic relations are marked by development of xenophobia and disposition to national isolation. The monitoring outcome shows an extremely unfavourable tendency of the Ukrainian population: national aloofness and instargement practically from all other nationalities. Self-tolerance has been on the decrease: the distance increases regarding to the basic nationalities resident in Ukraine (the title nationality – Ukrainians, and the largest minorities – Russians and Byelorussians).
The manifestations of aloofness and instargement are intensifying especially in teenagers’ social circles. Personal identity and being accustomed to the variety of social roles are formed at this age. There are frequent demonstrations of the hatred against national minorities’ representatives, migrants at the Ukrainian schools. The educational programme of the secondary schools does not provide any subjects that help a teenager to form the understanding of tolerance. |
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Method:
The main principle of the camp is personal contact, “feeling into”, and an attempt to live though a day through the eyes of a Different Person. Personal acquaintance, personalization, helps to destroy biased opinions, lower the level of indifference, aggressiveness and fear of a Different Person.
Children are not divided into groups depending on their ethnic belonging, that is why children from different nations don’t have to compete with each other and prove which nation is better. Poles, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russians, and Armenians live one common camp life. Thus, the principle of “whom shall we be friends against?” loses its meaning here. Joint activities, dwelling of children of different nations in one room, and rich friendly fellowship change “friendship against someone” to merely friendship.
Each day the camp plunges into a world of culture, language, symbols, customs and traditions of one nation. Each morning starts with the national anthem or song of a particular nation. During their morning classes children learn about culture and history of this nation, learning words from its mini-dictionary to be able to greet one another on that day. It is important for children to feel that they are not alone in this world, that they are surrounded by many cultures, that they are different from one another but each of them is interesting and unique.
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Classes are held in an interactive game form; children discuss specifics of traditions of a nation, comparing their ideas of this nation with real facts. In cafeteria they can taste ethnic dishes, in clubs – learn dances and songs of different nations, as well as traditional ethnic trades and sports. Children of that particular culture feel special on that day, telling the others about their nation’s traditions, games, and holidays.
In the evening, the whole camp is invited either to a Tatar feast or Greek Olympiad, Ukrainian party or Jewish salatron. It includes national games and competitions. Each group makes a gift – a dance, a song, or a play to the children of a birthday nation. At the final international festival children demonstrate those new things that they have learned in the camp.
Projects team: tutors from ethnic minorities of Ukraine and professional psychologists. Special educational and evaluation seminars for the tutors are held on the regular basis.
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© design - Elena Zaslavska 
© editor - Anna Lenchovska