V4Dem
CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS
Looking for: 25 participants
Being residents in one of the partner countries:
Cyprus, Poland, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Türkiye, Romania, Greece
When:
4–12 March 2025 (including travel dates)
Link to apply HERE (deadline for application: 26th of October 2024)
📖🎨 What is the Visuals4Demilitarisation project about? 🎨📖
Cyprus, a tiny island, has 6 different military entities (Greek Cypriot National Guard, Greek military, Turkish military, Turkish Cypriot military, United Kingdom military bases and UN peacekeeping forces). The heavy presence of the different armies is affecting the lives and the human rights of the residents of the island in visible, but also in invisible ways. The compulsory military service that the residents of Cyprus have to go through across the divide, alongside with the ethno-centric education systems are promoting unique identities enforcing the division between “us” and “them”. Cyprus provides a promising social background for projects aimed at exploring the societal attitudes that are promoted due to militarisation.
In this project we want to create a space where we can discuss in depth about the diversity of our identities, the relative importance we give to the different aspects of our identities but also explore concepts of peace and non-violence in the context of visual art and visual communication.
In the effect we will create together a visual testimony of the military presence in Cyprus.
This project has a structure of a training connected with short-term artistic residency. You don’t have to be a professional artist but please be mindfull that the formula of this project invites participants to create — solo or in a group.
At the end of the week, we will conclude the program with a local exhibition and will celebrate together! 🥳🥳🥳
🎯Aim of the project:
We aim to equip 25 young youth workers from diverse backgrounds working with visuals or willing to incorporate visual tools in their work with tools of peacebuilding, conflict transformation, Non Violent Communication, emotional literacy, media and visual literacy and visual communication. Additionally we aim to explore topics of identities, nationalism and demilitarisation to address European and regional tensions with non-violent means.
📌📌Objectives:
- To explore the concepts of active participation, positive and negative peace, peacebuilding and human rights in context of militarisation and map its possible violations;
- To understand the importance of visual arts and visual communication in the context of war, militarisation and human rights, and as a tool to combat hate speech against people of different ethnicity;
- To get familiar with the topic of militarisation and situation of young people in the partner countries and using this knowledge as a framework for peaceful transformative social actions;
- To empower youth workers working with visuals to take active role in addressing the mapped human rights violations related to militarisation and to stand up against them by using visual tools;
- To gather good practices in raising awareness on human rights issues in the context of demilitarisation with use of visual tools;
- To raise the employability of the participants with the competences of critical thinking, factfulness, digital investigation, deconstructing media manipulations, media and visual literacy and incorporating human rights approach in the creative processes and ethical approach to visual communication;
- To create a visual testimony of the military presence in the divided capital of Cyprus and create a digital gallery and physical exhibition in the Ledra Palace buffer zone.
🙋 This project is for you if you are:
- a youth worker working with visuals or professional involved in art education, training
- working with conflict affected communities, militarised territories and implementing grassroots peace building processes and wanting to implement creative tools into your work;
- a professional working with youth and willing to improve your competences in teaching, training and youth work by expanding them for tool of artivism and peace education;
- a person active as trainer or educator in non–formal education, especially within youth organizations and associations, in youth work activities and in other NGOs concerned with current situation in europe connected with situation of conflict affected communities, and militarised territories;
- a young artist in the field of visuals being socially engaged and willing to explore visuals in the context of peace-building, demilitarisation and human rights as their tool of work;
- a community leader and active multiplier at the local/regional/national levels within youth organization.
- working in the youth field and are taking the important role of a leader in various youth activities and programs.
- a young person who have interests and experiences in topics of militarisation, peace studies, peace, peacebuilding, human rights education, and additional to their experience would like to explore the topics of the presence of militarised units in the society in relation to the creation of a culture of peace.
- a young person who believe in positive changes in your community, are passionate about issues facing your community; are committed to self-development and are seeking innovative solutions to social challenges connected with militarisation.
- a person with experience of militarisation of everyday life in the project partners’ countries.
The crucial factor for selection is ensuring a multiplying effect and feasible outcomes for the project. Therefore, a concept for your artistic project and/or follow-up artistic action that will be prepared during the residential activity in Cyprus should be the central point of your application.
What are the costs?💸💸💸
Due to the Erasmus+ program, we can provide you with this unique opportunity for free! We will reimburse your:
- travel
- accommodation
- food (3 meals per day + coffee breaks)
🧑🤝🧑 Meet the team! 👯
Lambros Asvestas (trainer)
Lambros graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Economics in 2020. He is an experienced Economics teacher and Youth Worker. He has been teaching Economics to teenagers for the last 3 years, and he has organised with Hade numerous inclusive community meetings and workshops around Cyprus. He worked as a camp coordinator in Cyprus Peace Camps facilitating workshops, dialogue, and a safe space for the participants to share and learn from each other for two consecutive summers, each camp having 50 teenagers from across the divide. More recently, he worked at the Council of Europe in the summer of 2023 as a facilitator at the Youth Peace Camp. Currently, he is a project coordinator at the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) for the AHDR Peace Ambassadors programme.
Julia Woźniak (trainer)
Julia is a cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, specialising in feminism, migration, and the use of arts in activism and peace education. Her academic research delves into cultural diversity, migration processes, and the nature of cultural conflicts, with a particular focus on feminist perspectives.
She is the co-founder of Peace Ambassadors Poland and an educator in the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network, her work is concentrated on promoting and utilising artivism in non formal education and peacebuilding, nonviolent communication and emotional literacy. Julia has conducted numerous workshops on peace education and non-violent communication, both in Poland and internationally. She served as a peace and education consultant for the Council of Europe. She has completed a course on “Storytelling for social change” at the University of Michigan. In her free time she enjoys crocheting and dancing barefoot to Slavic and 80s hits.
Maciej Rotowski (trainer)
Maciej is a member of YPAN and co-founder of PA Poland. He has cooperated with multiple international organizations, including the Council of Europe, as a facilitator and trainer. He has conducted numerous training sessions across Europe for artists and activists, promoting the concept of artivism. A graduate of the Polish National Film School in Łódź (directing department), now he specializes in facilitating creative processes and organizing creative spaces. Since 2021, he also has been running a screen-printing workshop in Warsaw.
Since 2019, his main area of interest has been conflict transformation. In 2023, he became certified as an NVC mediator from Colegium Civitas in Warsaw.
The “Visuals4Demilitarisation” training course is designed and implemented by Hade and the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network within the support of the Cypriot National Agency of the Erasmus Plus Programme.
Hade is a multi communal youth-led initiative for peace activism with a mission to promote the urgency of avoiding permanent partition of Cyprus. This initiative was created as a result of online cooperation of young people to address an urgent demand to open the checkpoints of Cyprus that were closed for more than 11 months due to the pandemic. Since the opening of the checkpoints, it has been organising events for youth-led grassroots reconciliation and social change in Cyprus. It has been developing peacebuilding workshops based on non-formal education to raise awareness about the challenges faced by different minority groups living in Cyprus, managing language exchange classes of Greek and Turkish and other initiatives for facilitating intercommunal interaction and discussion.
Youth Peace Ambassadors Network (YPAN) is an informal network of 130 young peacebuilders from across Europe who work with and in conflict-affected communities. The majority of the members of the network are trained on human rights, non-formal education, and conflict transformation by the Council of Europe in the long-term project (2011–2014).
Our Mission: The YPA Network wants to develop a culture of peace by empowering young people, and promoting human rights, dignity, equality, and respect for diversity through education, advocacy, and other non-violent actions through projects at the local and international levels.
Follow us on 👉 YPAN INSTAGRAM👈👉HADE👈
Application process!
✨Click HERE to apply and fill in the form.✨
Please be aware that we use AI detectors while reviewing the applications. It is acceptable to check the grammar, but if the content of your answers is AI-generated, the application will be automatically rejected.
DEADLINE: 26th OF OCTOBER 2024
CONTACT 📧
If you have any questions write to: hade.cyp.project@gmail.com
”Visuals4Demilitarisation” is a project financed by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme. The content of the page represents the views of the author only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for the use that may be made of the information it contains.
