MIGRANT LED PROJECT RECASTS HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE GLOBAL STAGE
The Gaiety School of Acting has teamed up with partners from Ireland, Turkey, Greece and Germany on a European project that aims to empower young migrants to advocate for their human rights.
Currently in Ireland there are 749 young people aged between 17 and 25 living in direct provision centres. In Turkey this number reaches 1.7 million, while in Greece it is 29,459 and in Germany 26,500. While the experiences of these young people are complex and individual, they share commonalities in that all of them are subject to discrimination, marginalisation and exploitation.
I-Save, funded through the Erasmus Plus programme, puts young migrants at the heart of the project, ensuring that they are working directly with the partner organisations in the four countries to create, develop and disseminate the project outputs; outputs which have the key objective of promoting human rights.
The project’s steering committees, consisting of young migrants from all represented countries, will work together to develop the following:
● Digital content reflecting on their Human Rights
● A youth led Digital Platform to support young leaders and Youth Workers
● Training Handbooks for Youth Workers to empower this group in self-advocacy
● Masterclasses in advocacy tools for young refugees
● Recommendations for NGOs to create their own I-Save framework with which to work with young refugees
GSA, is working together with Dublin-based NGO The Scoop Foundation, Turkish humanitarian association IGAM, The Greek Forum of Refugees and German volunteer development agency Freiwilligen-Zentrum. The project partners will use the cross-section of their skills from working with refugees, volunteers, in human rights and theatre education to best support the young participants in achieving the goals of this project.
I-Save kicked off in February 2021 and has since completed the first steps towards completing its objectives. The young members of the transnational steering committee recently shared with us their feelings entering into the project.
It is very important to know our rights and responsibilities as we, the youth, are the future.
IRELAND
I am interested in such issues (human rights), and being in contact with the other countries has also made me curious. I also want to contribute to the future of the world or be the voice for those who don't have the opportunity. That's why I saw this project as a "door" to do that and that's why I wanted to participate in this project.
GERMANY
I'm very proud of having an opportunity to contribute to society and having a mission to stand up for the rights of the ones who cannot do it for themselves.
TURKEY
I am glad and happy I got myself involved in this as I was able to meet some great people and I’m excited to meet more amazing people from different countries and work as a team to achieve our goals on similar if not the same topics.
GREECE
You can learn more about I-Save and keep up to date with the steering committee’s work via their social media and on their blog, accessible now at http://isaveproject.eu/
