The 2nd transnational event of the You are Welcome project took place in Thessaloniki, Greece from 24-27 November 2017.
Representatives of the partner organisations from the Czech Republic (Institut pro regionaini rozvoj, o.p.s.), Denmark (othernessproject), Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Center for Intercultural Dialogue (CID), Germany (Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V. Memorare Pacem and the Municipality of Dresden), Greece (Addart Addart and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Hungary (Gláser Jakab Emlékalapítvány) and the United Kingdom (Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council) met at the City Hall of Thessaloniki on the 25th of November and discussed first the progress of the project.
In the afternoon, the international workshop “Otherness Dialogue” led by Dr. Rita Júlia Sebestyén was held, based on theatre methods which fostered self-reflection and cultural interaction. In the evening, the public event You ARE Welcome was held at the Museum of the Roman Forum, from 17:00 to 21:00. The organisers of the event, Cofix Dimitris Savvaidis and Milos Jovic from AddArt opened the event with a salutation speech and Myrto-Helena Pertsinidi, Myrele Per, the coordinator of the You are Welcome project (Jugend- & Kulturprojekt e.V.), welcomed all the guests and spoke about the project and the international event in Thessaloniki.Mrs. Qazi Marzia Babakarkhail spoke about the project and the public event in Arabic, Farsi and Ourdou and welcomed all attendees coming from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Arabian speaking countries. The public event included the photo exhibition “Dreaming of a New Life” by the photographer and film director Morteza Jafari, the illustration exhibition “Human Right – Human Wrong” – an initiative of Addart Addart, a performance by the female vocal group Πλειάδες – Pleiades who sang melodies from different regions in Europe and all over the world, the screening of the film “School on the Move” by Europa Transit and the projection of selected short animation films about Human Rights by AddArt and TAF (Thessaloniki Animation Festival).
In the morning of November 26, representatives met again in the City Hall of Thessaloniki to listen to a lecture by Dr. Rita Júlia Sebestyén and the presentation of AddArt AddArt’s “My Hero” workshop, who worked with refugee children to create superhero comics made up by the children. In the afternoon, representatives visited an organization that helps unaccompanied refugee children and provides them with safe accommodation. At the end of the day, meeting assessment and planning of the next meeting in Budapest took place.
