Debates and skits on sensitive subjects as an educational tool
One month ago, the BARUVAS summer meeting came to a close and, just like the previous meetings, it was quite successful. More than 40 Romani secondary school and university students gathered at a hotel in Týnec nad Sázavou.
While one of the most important tasks of the BARUVAS project is to bring Romani students together and provide them a safe space to develop and share experiences with each other, each BARUVAS also has its own unique subject. This year it was discrimination and hate speech.
Skits are a brilliant instrument for starting discussion
Skits have been a component of the BARUVAS program from almost the very beginning. “We believe that skits are the correct approach for starting discussions on the subjects to which we want to dedicate this time. Imagine you have 40 students who are meeting for the very first time and they are supposed to discuss something. Breaking the ice and beginning with the easy, quite effective skit technique is the real thing. By working in small groups the students get to know each other better, they write a script, they design costumes, and ultimately they perform the skit for us. I don’t know a better technique through which to demonstrate to the rest of us how the students perceive a certain issue,” says Štefan Balog, manager of the ROMEA organization’s scholarship program.
The next day after arriving at the hotel, the students got the opportunity to perform in front of an audience about what are frequently difficult, sensitive subjects, such as discrimination, hate speech, racism. Ahead of their performances, the students had the option of learning more about what hate speech is thanks to Balog’s workshop on the subject.
“Skits are quite important for comprehending and expressing one’s opinion on the broadest range of subejcts that many of us encounter on a daily basis. It is exactly discrimination, hate speech and racism that each of us has experienced at some point in our lives. That is precisely why I am glad I can express my bad experiences, my good experiences, and even my ideas for addressing this situation with the aid of skits,” says Vanesa Harvanová, a student at the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem.
Discussing all our burning issues…
On the following day it was only natural that the discussion would continue. Journalist and moderator Jarmila Balážová facilitated.
“In the beginning, the students were a bit hesitant to speak about their pwn emotions and their own experiences, but after a while they relaxed, and we and our colleagues learned things from them we hadn’t anticipated. We believe it is important the students share their experiences with each other. That also aids us in our further work with them,” Balog says.
The BARUVAS program was created in 2016 and is a component of the ROMEA organization’s scholarship program, which supports Romani students on the road to achieving their dreams. Continuous work with Romani students is one of the most important instruments for combating discrimination and stereotypes.
The ROMEA organization, in cooperation with the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), is working on a project that maps so-called Hate Speech and, together with the Forum for Human Rights, prepares criminal charges against persons who defame, insult or incite the murder of Roma with their Internet posts. This project was supported by EVZ.
