Tolerance: Is Our Society Tolerant?

What is tolerance? Is there tolerant attitude among society and especially towards refugees? These were the issues that were discussed with 20 youngsters of Nor Khachakap village (a village near Vanadzor inhabited by refugees), during the training held on July 24.

The training “Tolerance: Is Our Society Tolerant?” was organized by the peace building department of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, which was devoted to the International Refugee Day. The training aimed at forming culture of tolerance among youth. The participants expressed their opinions and ideas on intolerance; they presented cases of intolerance they faced.
  “We did not accept a newcomer in our class”- tells one of the youngsters,-“I don’t know the reason, we just could not trust him, he was distinguished by his being isolated and he did not want to be involved in our daily life”- continues one o them.
  Young people’s examples and stories about the cases of intolerance were different, especially at school, where they usually spend most of their day.
  They spoke about intolerant attitude towards different religions, nations and shared with their own definitions on intolerance:” to ignore, overlook different beliefs and opinions, to neglect, to dictate one’s behaviour means intolerance” - noted young people.
  A special part of the training was the presentation of the UNITED network, its history, work and of course, definitions of intolerance.
  During the training, the participants focused on the necessity of fighting against intolerance and discussing possible ways. The trainers of HCA Vanadzor pointed out the skills and means of expression of the forum – theatre, established by Brazilian Augusto Boal, as a visible example so that the young people could realize the ways and forms of fighting against intolerance.
  Young people performed a case of intolerance taken from their real life, after which the participants not only were given the chance to offer possible ways of solution, but also play the same part in their own way and version. Through this kind of work, efforts were made to analyze with youth the reasons for being intolerant and the forms that could promote their elimination.
  “Through the forum-theatre that we used during the training, I expected to give the youngsters an opportunity to think about the reasons for being intolerant, to feel the roots of intolerance and realize them more deeply, because only in this way one can find possibilities for reduction of intolerance”-mentioned trainer Edgar Khachatryan.
  According to the results of the evaluation at the end of the event, the participants realize the existence of intolerance among society and find that it is necessary to permanently fight against different forms of intolerance.
  We have to note that work with young people from refugee families is one of the activities of HCA Vanadzor and such events are held regularly.