MAINSTREAMING TOOLS — ACTIVITIES

Centre of Reproductive and Sexual Health in Sleepyville

Author: Trajectorya NGO
Ljubov Lissina • ljubov@trajectorya.ee

Preparations

Printouts of the situation and role-cards with their descriptions (appendix 1 is given to each participant and role cards from Appendix 2, should be cut and given to participants according to their role defined beforehand or randomly); Markers, flip-charts; Materials for creating identity; Bell for Major (or something to help to keep the attention/order), box (to collect the votes), post-its (or other paper for voting-papers); Party and ngo titles, to put at the tables during the plenary meeting; Prepare the space for meeting and break: tables put in the round or square way, the place for major in the middle… etc. The place for de-rolling and de-briefing is better to be different one from the simulation place; Prepare the print outs or publications of the Human Rights Documents supporting the preparation of the argumentation (the library: UDHR, ECHR; Cairo Declaration…).

 

Debriefing

It may be necessary more time even, than 60 minutes. The emotional reaction might be strong. Recommended questions for debriefing are:

• Reporting and Reflection on the Experience: In circle order one by one - go for a round of feelings in one world.

Why those feelings? What happened? Were you surprised by the result of the vote, and did it reflect the position of the person you were playing? How easy was it to identify with your role? At this moment every group read aloud their specific Role), Did you follow all the arguments of your role? How did you construct your “role”? What images did you use? (Stereotyping?), How much influence do you think you (in your role) had on the result? Were you surprised with some of the positions? Did interaction with other people or groups make you alter your approach or your attitude towards the problem? How did you use the materials provided (UDHR, ECHR; Cairo Declaration…)? Which ones? Did it work? Were all the arguments used? Which were missing?

• Conceptualisation: Explain that it was a role simulation.

Do you think that this situation could arise in real life? Can you think of any similar cases? How would you react if this case arose in your town / place of residence? What is the role of media? Did the activity alter your attitude at all? Did it bring elements/arguments that you have never considered before? What will be the outcome of such voting in your reality? What are the main arguments in your community? What Human Rights were addressed at the exercise? What we the rights in conflict? Did you achieve dialogue? Why yes/no? What can we learn from this exercise?

Tested outcomes

It was first adopted by Ljubov Lissina with the colleagues for the TRAINING COURSE FOR TRAINERS AND MULTIPLIERS ON HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN UKRAINE (2012) and then as well tested adapted at the National TC in Human Rights Education for Russian Federation (2013).

Tips for facilitation

The exercise is not recommended to be run with totally new groups, not prepared groups and to be run as a single activity or workshop; For instance it would be good that the group already is familiar with the theory on stereotyping and prejudice… The situation and role cards with the names of the parties and ngo-s, should be studied beforehand and adapted for your working context; You may add another ngo and political party, depending to your group size and context; The participants should keep in their role as it s described – all beyond the description, they can improvise and interpret –it is up to them; do not explain them the role - it should be their understanding. The media, might be taken away, in case you are shorter in time (do not forget to re-adapt the materials in this case! - take away the roles and their inputs); The parties and ngo-s, should be 1 person, ideally 2 – pairs or triples; The group of citizens might be big, but they have no right to express their opinion during the debate; Personally instruct the Mayor at the preparatory stage; The facilitators might take themselves a role of security person or photographer (following and giving hints where needed, especially to Mayor); The distribution of roles can be done by the facilitator(s) – then you might reinforce to try diverse people to emphasize with other roles and make sure not to take their stereotypical roles; The exercise might be a whole day activity; Make sure they use the documents from the library – it always gives stronger impact for argumentation (especially it is important for the HR organisation!); You will never know how the voting goes - it is always a surprise; It is important to have enough time for debriefing; It is important to have a good de-rolling (giving-up the role game); Make sure after the activity, there are lighter activities in the programme – games, dance, re-conciliation exercises, art etc. Make sure you can air the room, when needed; The debriefing might be heavy, be ready for emotions; The debriefing might be run in two sub groups, in case of large group; Take notes during the action and debriefing to provide links later on with other programme-elements; It is dangerous, in case of re-enforcing stereotypes – make sure in debriefing you address those cases.

 

Potential follow-up

It could be followed-up by ·       Intro to the concept of Human Rights; ·       Mechanisms of Discrimination; ·       Combating Hate Speech; ·       Human Rights Activism; ·       Concept of Human Rights Education; ·       Conflicting Rights; ·       LGBT Rights protection; ·       Legal Instruments of protection of Human Rights ·       Returning back to the conceptual part in more practical way, such as learning to recognise which rights are addressed in certain situations, which rights are in conflict, are there some rights for some people which are more or less important etc. ·       It could be followed working with the focus on minority rights; ·       Another direction could be the work on design and adaptation of the exercises, in case of ToT; Taking decisions on local level and local democracy; Democratic Leadership…

Needed resources

Hand-outs, entities’ labels and descriptions of the situation printed; materials for the creation of the role identity; box for votes and paper for the voting-paper; some bell for the Mayor to call for order; appropriate tables and chairs set up in appropriate way to simulate the meeting; water at the tables. Ideally the running of the meeting should be in another place with the de-rolling place and de-briefing.

 

Sources

This role-exercise is an adaptation of “Construction of the Mosque in Sleepyville” from Companion. See the original at http://eycb.coe.int/compass/en/pdf/Companion_final.pdf, page 19.

Appendix

Click to view and download the appendix file for this activity.