The Jan Karski International Institute for Dialogue and Tolerance chose spring 2010 for the realization of one of its most important international projects. During 5 days in May, hidden deep in the forest near the Bąkowiec castle, the participants of a contact making seminar named “Let’s talk about dialogue” met not only to talk. And even when they did, they debated the possibilities of common international projects and the opportunities given by the “Youth in Action” Programme, or the European Social Fund. All 26 participants representing the same number of non-governmental organizations from 17 countries agreed – the seminar organized by the Institute was a huge success.

What however does not mean that the values promoted by the Institute were comercialized or trivial as suggested by the word “success”. To fully understand the idea it’s worth to take a closer look at the event.


The seminar was prepared and financed within the mentioned above “Youth in Action” Programme”, what in itself resembles the effectiveness of the integration tools of the EU. The idea of the meeting was to gather leaders from non-governmental organizations from across Europe to meet in person and talk about their experiences and their organizations. Most of them were working on the basis of voluntary service and were one of the most active ngo’s in their country. The planned activities were to allow the participants to get to know each other - personally and professionally, when looking at their organizations. They also included the multicultural and multiethnic context of the represented countries, which in many cases had a history of, or remained in, conflict. At the same time the meeting allowed to show how the criteria of nationality is playing a less and less important role in the united Europe and although it still remains visible, it becomes weaker and nationalities begin to mix with the eachother, thus making unambiguous stereotype oppinions impossible. A good example was how an Albanian girl was able to represent Kosovo during the seminar or how a Polish girl representing Germany was able to share her sense of attachment and patriotism evenly between the two countries.

The organizers patiently took care of providing every participant with assistance and help when getting from the airport to the venue. This was very important for providing psychical comfort and good physical condition for the international group. The first day of the seminar planned with light integrating activities and the introductory presentation of the organizations passed smoothly and although it was intensive – there were no signs of fatigue in the group. When it came to the official presentation of the organizations participating in the project it was done in a way that avoided dry boring presentations with numbers and statistics. Computers were not allowed in the presentation what left the participants to use their own creativity, paper, scissors, glue and the idea of medieval times which was the convention of the whole seminar. Soon they included in their presentations also the cups and doors and windows of the work room and even the rubbish bin became part of it. The informal atmosphere allowed everyone to let go and have fun even if the painted dragons (symbols of the problems tackled by their organizations) resembled more frogs or dogs.





The next 2 days of the seminar were packed with activities that meant to give the participants an occasion to better understand the objectives and methods of the other organizations, their specific environment and priorities. An important element was also the presentations of the tools in disposal of these organizations (within the “Youth in Action” Programme) to implement their objectives. Working together on the tasks (basing on non-formal learning methods) the participants were able to precise their knowledge of the potential partners and understand which actions they can use and what projects are possible to implement. To put it simply they could mark were their objectives and goals come together. Thanks to the contact making seminar they could collect valuable contacts and what even more important – inspiration for new actions. Sympathy and trust were present most of the time what surely raised the motivation for work – to discuss how to connect different plans into a common idea and create the drafts for future projects. It was an important element of the successful co-operation in the future.





From the point of view of the participants one of the biggest values of the seminar was the selections of the participants. A big part of the group consisted of very experienced people (for example Haykuhi Margaryan from Armenia, Vadim Vieru from Moldova or Ran Amit from Israel), some were newcomers, who were just beginning their co-operation with the Youth in Action” Programme. The first had much to share both in the field of the project management as well as in the field of the general idea of the Programme and were patiently answering even the simplest questions. One of the activities proposed by the facilitators – a discussion between groups either in favor or against the opening of society for immigrant cultures – uncovered the leaders in the group and at the same time allowed a short analysis of the social mechanisms and psychological factors that allow xenophobia, prejudice to grow in almost every human. Some of the participants found difficulty to stop their emotions, others surprisingly, even for themselves, were capable to force their ideas into others even though they completely disagreed with it. It was a shocking experience for most of the participants to discover how easy it is close yourself for dialogue and talk from the position of power. The arguments of the minority are puny, when they are judged from the position of the majority. Luckily the moderation of the discussion and evaluation allowed to control the raging emotions and keep them within the frames of the activity. The intercultural evening allowed to let off steam after the intensive day and handled in a happy atmosphere the rest of the emotions from the discussion.

The day before last was a day to rest from the work on the projects and the discussions. On this day the participants got to know the region in which the Karski Institute operates. Some of them have heard about Upper Silesia in the context of the coal mining areas or relics of heavy industry and pollution. During the visit to the historical Coal Mine GUIDO in Zabrze and the Radiostation in Gliwice the participants of the seminar became familiar with the complicated history of the region. Many of them was not aware of the autonomy movement in the region, nor that history and the political results of it are a very difficult topic for many of the people, who have high regional awareness and consider themselves of Silesian nationality. Some of the participants, like Irene Sanchez from Spain, or Lua Martin from Belgium were able to speak about similar situations and the crisis of the national state in their countries

Becoming involved into youth initiatives with partners from other countries allows young people to build awareness in the field of European citizenship. This awareness in combination with education should give a full image and knowledge of the mechanisms of a truly democratic society. Young people educated in this way will someday become involved in helping the excluded, building intercultural dialogue or simply live by the rules of tolerance and respect for the other. This according to the integration policy of the EU will hopefully allow us to live in a more peaceful world.

>>> Photos from the project.

The project was co-financed by the European Commission within the „Youth in Action”: Programme.