KOOLITUS
Name of the project: “Unleashing the Power of Youth Work to Counter Online Hate Speech – UP!’’ Training Course
Date: 13th November – 21st November 2022
City/Country: Dilijan, Armenia.
What was the main topic of the project?
Annely Kasela – Countering hate speech on social media.
Ave-Marleen Aesma – The main topic of the project was to educate the participants about hate speech and how to fight it through different exercises and workshops. Also to prepare us to be ready to campaign it on our own in our national countries.
What was the biggest learning moment for you?
Annely Kasela – How the subjects of hate speech really differ in different European countries. I hadn’t even thought about some minority groups that could be discriminated against because we either don’t have or have very few representatives of them in Estonia.
Ave-Marleen Aesma – I gained the confidence to stand up for hate speech, try to make a change, and share my experience with others who might need it.
Do you have any plans to continue being active in the field? If yes, in which way?
Annely Kasela – Yes, I’d possibly like to help create a project or help more with social media.
Ave-Marleen Aesma – Yes, I discovered many things about myself that could’ve helped me in the past, I wish someone were there for me to realize, what I am doing wrong or how I can make things better. So that’s what I plan to do in my local community. Do workshops and share my knowledge and experience with the kids, who are around that age, where I felt like I could’ve had some help in the past.
Would you recommend this experience to your friends? If yes, why? If no, why not?
Annely Kasela – Yes, absolutely. I met so many awesome people and although I already knew quite a lot about this topic, I still had so many learning moments.
Ave-Marleen Aesma – Yes, you definitely learn a lot during these kinds of projects, by gaining knowledge not only from the trainers, but also from other participants and personal growth is almost guaranteed, plus you get to meet amazing people and make friends for life, what’s there not to like!
Other comments or anything else you would like to share?
Ave-Marleen Aesma – I would really like to thank the trainers Morgaine and Nelly for making the atmosphere very comfortable and safe and that they made learning fun and interesting. I hope to see you all again in the Netherlands 🙂
This Project was financed by European Commission’s Erasmus + Programme
