SOS Culture Project and “Youth Advocacy for Peace” study session
EU funded SOS Culture project was introduced during the study session. A study session on “Youth Advocacy for Peace” took place in European Youth Center Budapest, Hungary on 14-20 of October, 2012. The study session was organized by United Network of Young Peacebuilders, International Centre for the Promotion of Education and Development (CEIPES), Support Initiative for Liberty and Democracy (SILBA) and Fundacio Catalunya Voluntaria supported by the Council of Europe Youth Department.
The project has a special focus on advocacy, as well as to share practices and ideas on advocacy work engaging young people. EU funded SOS Culture project was introduced during the study session. First it was a NGO bazar when the project was introduced to the participants. Second, was the workshop on “Artistic means on Youth Advocacy”, during which filmmaking as a tool for advocacy was presented and discussed.
The SOS Culture project is implemented by Foundation for Wildlife Preservation and Cultural Assets (FPWC) in cooperation with the dvv international – Georgia Country office and Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation.
SOS Culture relies on the active involvement of youth in taking care and raising public awareness for neglected cultural monuments. Artistic tools play an important role in this project such as filmmaking and photography. These tools can improve the process of advocacy that can be organized by the members of youth clubs within the project. Videos and photos allow people to see information. Nowadays young people have all the advantages of new technologies which make it easier to use these tools for advocacy.
The study session was a great opportunity to present the SOS Culture project and find programmes that work with young people in border regions. It was also an open space to discuss how filmmaking can be used for awareness raising and advocacy purposes. “The presentation of the SOS Culture project and the workshop on filmmaking and youth advocacy was useful and interesting. Filmmaking is a great tool for advocacy strategy for many organizations and initiatives. The feedback was positive and, as a facilitator I felt great during the session and the discussion on a potential of filmmaking and advocacy”- mentioned Gohar Ghandilyan, SOS Culture educational coordinator.
