ألمانيا

Since 1992, the organisation has mainly been active in the Western Balkans, having gained 25 years of experience with youth, educational and anti-discrimination projects across the region. After an initial focus on humanitarian aid, the organization has been implementing youth and education programmes in the region since the mid-90s with offices in Bosnia and Hercegovina (BiH) and Kosovo (with the Kosovo office developing into an independent organization). SHL has partnered with dozens of local grassroots institutions and holds partnerships as long-term as 12 years with individual organizations. Besides our general expertise in the region, we are the only youth-led foundation in Germany and one of very few social organizations founded and led by young people. Since 2013, SHL extended its project region and also supports projects for children and youth in Jordan and Syria who had to flee from the conflict in Syria. In 2022, SHL started emergency aid projects in the Ukraine and its neighbouring countries for youth who were affected by the Russian invasion.

At the Shanti Foundation, we are committed to making encounters between people possible. We are talking about encounters that are new and surprising as well as encounters beyond our comfort zone.

In view of a perceived divide in many societies, our social interaction is often at the centre of daily news. It is commonplace that mutual understanding, respect and acceptance need to be strengthened. The real challenge lies in recognising and overcoming prejudices that are simply assumed and reproduced. To do this, we need situations of encounter in which people with different perspectives can come together on an equal footing. We need spaces of encounter in which people can have their own positive experiences with each other.

Testing, exploring and researching formats for encounters and contacts that are sustainable is more important than ever. We support suitable methods and tools so that people can influence and inspire each other. In order to bring people into contact in the first place, we support creative approaches to reach them.

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The WEM staff as well as WEM members organize conferences with participants from Europe, the Arab World (especially the Maghreb) and Subsahara Africa. A concrete project is a virtual map of places which incarnate the intensive cultural exchange between Europa, the Southern Mediterranean World and Subsahara Africa, for example Tangiers, Granada, Weimar, Alexandria, Timbuktu. Another project is a German/European – Arabic dictionary of cultural and political key words with commentaries on the culturally specific semantics of each word.

In our courses we work on a wide range of topics which all have in common that they are oriented towards a diversity and social justice perspective. Topics addressed so far in our courses have included gender, identity, immigration, intergroup conflict, Islamophobia, and Anti-Semitism. Our basic media literacy curriculum scaffolds competencies in the areas of digital media, socio-emotional development, and language use. We come ready with our mobile media lab that includes digital cameras, microphones, tripods, and editing software, and we conduct workshops and classes tailored to each setting. Working with digital media in our projects includes more that mere “tech”-knowledge. Almost equally important are the acquisition and development of socio-emotional and language skills. In our courses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict youths of different backgrounds have the opportunity to explore different perspectives on the conflicting parties, research information, give voice to their experiences and emotions, and understand the experiences and emotions of others. In orientation to other approaches in the field of Peace Education, this line of our work focuses on the youths’ exploration of knowledge, values, attitudes and behaviors that are necessary for a peaceful coexistence. In a series of different modules (e.g., video messages, webcasts) we focus on the critical analysis of the structural and emotional constellations that feed situations of intractable conflict, and which also influence the participants in our courses.