Last week, the Platform of Development Organizations - Umbrella faced hundreds of hateful comments on social networks after publishing a video about the diversity of foreign tastes and about respect for people for whom Slovakia has become their new home. Such expressions of intolerance only confirmed how important it is to bring such topics to people outside the so-called 'non-government bubble'. Therefore, Umbrella continues the well-started Faces of Migration campaign, implemented simultaneously in seven EU countries. She posted another educational video this week:
Embedded media: https://www.youtube.com/embed/skkW8R7ZwWU
'Tolerance is fair play' from the workshop of the Čosi agency, while it moved from the gastro area to sports. Even there, he expects mixed reactions from the audience, but it is more important to open a discussion and reflect on the topic of perception and acceptance of foreigners in our society. He points out that we cannot endlessly wage an us vs. them and focus on finding differences between cultures instead of finding commonalities. The new video will answer the questions: 'how is Slovak football related to migration; how tolerant Slovakia is; and why tolerance is fair play'.
Since almost every village in Slovakia has its own football field or stadium and entire families live by this sport, the choice of topic for the second video was clear. The director of the Čosi advertising agency, Maroš Kemény, also explains its concept: "We wanted to point out the topic of tolerance towards people of a different culture or skin color as simply as possible - through the phenomenon of football racism, which, unfortunately, is still present in our stadiums. Its typical manifestation, which many players of a different culture or skin color have to face, is 'booing'. That's why we flipped this reprehensible manifestation of intolerance into a simple positive link - 'BU-BU-LET'S BE tolerant'."
The protagonists of the video themselves come from the Western Balkans, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. They found their second home and employment in Slovakia, but they are interested in how their loved ones are doing in specific low-income countries. And it is through specific life stories that the Faces of Migration campaign, as part of the Global Goals and Migration project, tries to expand the awareness of Slovaks about the reasons and methods of migration through the lens of international development. "For those who would like to learn more about the work of Umbrella after watching the video, online discussions are prepared for February, in which we will focus on describing the causes of hunger, poverty, domestic unrest and subsequent migration in low-income countries," reminds the Executive Secretary of Umbrella, Daniel Kaba.
As part of an online discussion that will take place on the Facebook page of Umbrella on Thursday, February 11, representatives of Umbrella's member organizations will talk about their activities in countries affected by humanitarian crises and affected by forced migration. "You will get a chance to understand the project of educating Syrian children in Lebanon under the baton of the Human in Danger organization; the eRko organization will explain how the carol collection Dobrá novina can improve the living conditions of the needy in the second poorest region of Uganda; and the Integra Foundation will present current aid to the population of Ethiopia, which has to flee to neighboring Sudan due to the ongoing military conflict in the Tigray region. There will also be an insight into the topic of migration from representative of the Slovak Agency for Development Cooperation - SAMRS, which co-finances such projects," concludes the invitation to an online discussion as part of the Faces of Migration campaign, the head of Umbrella, Daniel Kaba.
About Umbrella:
The Platform of Development Organizations - Ambrela (abbreviated Ambrela) is an umbrella organization of 28 mostly non-governmental organizations in Slovakia, which are dedicated to development cooperation, humanitarian aid, global development education, sustainable development - at home and abroad. Since 2019, together with six European partners, it has been implementing the Global Goals and Migration project, supported by the EU from the DEAR program. The 'Faces of Migration' campaign is one of the outputs of this project. Its goal is to raise awareness of diversity, tolerance and coexistence of people from different cultures through specific life stories and to look at the topic of migration through the prism of the Global Goals. The aforementioned videos and online discussions are part of this campaign. The production of the videos was supported by SlovakAid resources. More at: www.ambrela.org and www.tvaremigracie.sk
Text and photo: Umbrella.org