Ukrainian children want to live together in peace! Children ages 15 to 17 are invited to participate in a national contest on creative writing sharing their perspectives on what it means to build a future Ukraine where there is no room for war and hatred. Their best stories, selected by a panel of media experts, will be published in a booklet and distributed to their peers all over Ukraine. Authors of top stories will come to Kyiv for a training on journalism and participate in a press-briefing.
Ukraine has been engulfed in a military conflict since March 2014. Over 6,000 people were killed, 15,000 wounded and more than 800,000 have claimed refugee status. Lack of information and communication is among the key factors in the conflict. The continued lack of communication between citizens from different parts of the country is creating a rift, tearing the country apart and furthering lack of understanding and mistrust.
Openly communicating different ideas, especially peer-to-peer communication, is a widely accepted strategy for conflict resolution. The project will set the stage for building understanding among the next generation of Ukrainians by allowing children to express their ideas about peace and tolerance and sharing them with their peers from other parts of the country. The project will also help empower the next generation of journalists - honest, objective and tolerant towards others.
The most important impact would be building peace from within the country by amplifying the voices of children from different parts of Ukraine, helping them express their views and beliefs, as well as demonstrating their common strife for peace and tolerance. With this understanding in their hearts, when these young Ukrainians grow up, they will be less likely to succumb to prejudice, intolerance and poor judgment toward themselves, their countrymen, and their peers within Ukraine and abroad.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
