MAINSTREAMING TOOLS — ACTIVITIES
Paula has two Mommies
| Issues addressed | Human Rights, Identity, Minority rights, Prejudice |
| Complexity | 2 |
| Group size | 6+ |
| Estimated duration | 60 minutes |
| Objectives |
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| Related thematic chapters |
Preparations
Get the text of the story "Heather has two Mommies" or its adaptation to the needed language (for instance the Spanish edition is "Paula tine dow Mamas"). It might be a book or just the text. Read it in advance.Instructions
Step 1 — 20 minutes +
Introduce the activity: explain that you will read a children story and ask participants to sit comfortable and listen carefully. Read the story and in case you have a book, while reading - show the pictures from the book.
Step 2 — 20 minutes +, depending on the group size
Divide participants to groups of 3-6 people. In the subgroups ask them to share with each other, how they liked the story:
- What they think about it?
- Would they buy this book for their own kids/nephews/children of friends, as present back home?
- Would it be possible, that such a story is read in the kindergarten/school to kids in their local community?
Step 3 — 20 minutes +
Sharing and Conclusions.
Debriefing
Start from sharing on how the work in the groups went? How the participants are feeling? Why so, in case of strong emotions? Were they surprised by the reactions of their colleagues in their subgroups on the story? Why? Do you personally share the concept of the family, introduced in the story? What makes it difficult/easy to read such a story in participants' realities (to kids)? Should we, and how should we/parents/adults, speak to children on diverse family models? You may Finnish with the closing circle of the participants' learning from this activity.Tested outcomes
This activity was tested at several gender mainstreaming training courses organised by the Trajectory@ NGO or its partners for the youth workers in years 2013-2016 and before, in 2007-2008, at 3 Euromed TCs on Intercultural Dialogue around gender by Trajectorya NGO and its partners. The area of challenges for this method lays in difficulty how to approach the taboo themes such as sexuality, homosexuality and the right of gay couples to form family, marry and adopt children and how to speak about those with children. In many paces of the World being gay is a crime and same sex marriage is unacceptable by the law. The sensitivity around these topics can bring very emotional reactions.Tips for facilitation
- make sure your group is ready for the exercise;
- it is better not to run such an activity in the beginning of the training, especially is you know, what are the cultural backgrounds of your participants and their possible reactions;
- the activity may be run outdoors or in a different place from the plenary room;
- it is nice, that you imitate the kindergarten, when reading the story for instance, making participants sit in the circle as children, to sit at the play-ground etc.;
- if you have an original book, you may show the pictures - they help to imagine with what eyes the child could see it;
- for the debriefing, you may return back to the plenary room;
- you may extend this activity, adding different ways of bringing back the results of the discussions in a way of drawing, sketch, bullet-points presentation, to better share the discoveries of the group-work.
Potential follow-up
- going further into the topic of children rights;
- explore the human rights education with/working with children;
- intercultural context of the family concepts and sexual identities of participants;
- the role of men and women;
- the role of literature and media in education...
Needed resources
Space for reading and listening of the story and later on, for the working groups. The original book with the story - might be bough or taken from the library.Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llR3BXG_EWg