Europe festival promotes anti-racism
The
anti-racist message of the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association was at the heart of
Europe’s largest music festival which brought together 500,000 people on 1-4
August 2013. The free open-air ‘Polish Woodstock’ festival took place in
Kostrzyn on the Polish-German border.
The
‘Polish Woodstock’ festival prides itself on the friendly atmosphere and its
educational value, too.
The
event started by a minute of silence to commemorate those who had died during
the anti-nazi Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944.
Major
activities organized by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association at the festival site
included a football tournament under the motto ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of the
Stadiums’. Players from all over Poland as well as other countries, including
Russia, Ukraine, and Germany, participated in the games. They were joined by a
star team of ‘Project Integration’, composed of African-born footballers from
various Polish clubs, invited to the event by the ‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association.
As
part of its focus combining music and sports with education, the ‘NEVER AGAIN’
Association organized workshops, presentations and discussions about
discrimination, xenophobia and multiculturalism at its multi-lingual info-stand
throughout the festival. Each day thousands of young people visited the ‘NEVER
AGAIN’ info-stand, talked about the message and received anti-racist
educational materials.
The
‘NEVER AGAIN’ Association is an educational and monitoring organization
established in Poland in 1996. It is a regional East European partner of the
FARE Network. In 2009, in cooperation with UEFA and the FARE Network ‘NEVER
AGAIN’ set up the East Europe Monitoring Centre documenting and challenging
racism and xenophobia in the region. In 2012, it implemented the 'RESPECT
Diversity – Football Unites' social responsibility project accompanying the
European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine.
More
information:
www.nigdywiecej.org
www.facebook.com/respect.diversity
-
No comments:
Post a Comment