Slovenia

The city of Ptuj in Northeastern Slovenia celebrates the Mediterranean

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A photo the Youth local band INSTRUMENTAL.KO who performed next of following musicians and bands: Ali R Taha, LAGANINA,  KUD ART URBANA, Mahmoud Al Khatib,

For the first time, the city of Ptuj in Northeastern Slovenia celebrated “the Mediterranean day” on 28.11.2022 as part of the Anna Lindh Foundation “Celebrating the Mediterranean”. 

We are delighted that we hosted such an important celebration in Ptuj, aiming for a more inclusive and decentralised approach to celebrations and important events to take place equally in cities with fewer opportunities. 

The Povod institute co-organized the concert in cooperation with Bodi centre, the Municipality of Ptuj and the outstanding musicians: Ali R Taha and Mahmoud Al-Khatib, and the musical school: INSTRUMENTAL.KO, and two bands: LAGANINI and KUD ART URBANA"  with a magical touch of poetry by Abir Al Jundi. 

The audience described the event as a reflection of our unity through the power of music. "We celebrated with excellent music, songs and poetry reflecting the richness of the artistic scene in the Mediterranean region."

"31 years of shame"

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Amnesty

On August 23rd, the opening of the exhibition was held in the Libertas Warehouse, where the erased through the photographic eye of Borut Krajnec reflect on their memories, experiences and attitude to the erasure more than thirty years later.

Izbrisani (“deleted”) are residents of Slovenia who were illegally deleted from the register of permanent residents by the Ministry of the Interior on February 26, 1992. With this, they lost their legal status and the associated economic, health and social rights. The Aliens Act came into force for them, so they were treated as foreigners residing illegally in Slovenia. Among those deleted were persons born in Slovenia.

The exhibition is organized by Amnesty Slovenia in cooperation with the erased.

At the opening of the exhibition, they also organized a lecture on erasure with the testimonies of the erased.

More about event

"Arts Formation" Arts and Cultures to decolonize digital transformation in the EU

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Screenshot of website Arts Formation

The SIDE artistic collective, a member of the ALF network in Slovenia, participated in the Arts Formation artistic gathering tackling decoloniality in digital transformation in the European Union, which took place in June in Lesbos Island.

The Arts Formation is a research project exploring the intersection between arts, society, and technology. It aims to understand, analyze, and promote the ways in which the Arts can reinforce the social, cultural, economic, and political benefits of digital transformation.

In Lesbos Island, from 23 June to 1 July 2023, a group of artists and cultural workers met and collectively navigated the concept of decoloniality in digitalization. The SIDE collective mostly navigated the concept of digital empathy, freedom of speech, representation, and accessibility in digital transformation.

On 29 June, the participants collectively presented their various practices and techniques, reflecting digital transformation from a decolonial lens.

In addition to this recent gathering, last year within the Arts Formation program, the SIDE collective provided an online consultancy to create an online assembly that aims to:

1. Leveraging funds to support artists, beings, individuals, and communities facing marginalization.

2. Creating a self-sustained online community that creates alternative ways and means of funding.

3. Enabling a horizontal exchange between grassroots artists/ cultural workers/ researchers, and activists with practices and ideas that uses art and creative industries to combat marginalization, exploitation, and injustice in digitalization.

 

The Arts Formation program consists of different working packages. LATRA organization based in Lesbos Island manages the working package about “Arts for Social Change, Participatory Art and Artivism.” Within the framework of this working package, LATRA organization hosted and implemented the following activities in-person in Lesbos Island:

 

1.       Art residency occurred in three cycles in June 2022. Three residences happened in three cycles. Artists, researchers, and cultural workers working for social inclusion participated in artistic collective brainstorming on digitalization, participatory arts, and decoloniality.

2.       Residency in digital arts in April 2023, where artists from different backgrounds worked on projects that explored the connection between art and digital transformation.

3.         A recent final residency which took place in June 2023, the artists, curators, and researcher continued their individual and collective work exploring the connection between art and digital transformation while reflecting on Lesbos Island as a contextual socio-political-artistic space. 

The final conference and event of Arts Formation will take place in Brussels on 21 September 2023.

To learn more about this valuable program, its outcomes, outputs, and final event, visit its website here.

"Decoding Resilience" exhibition and workshop on 23rd of May in Ljubljana

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Announcement on website

The cycle of events will continue on the 23rd of May at 8 pm with the opening of the exhibition Decoding Resilience, which was created as part of the European BePart project. The exhibition is the final destination of a performative journey devised by Samar Zughool, Behnaz Aliesfahanipour, Safa Saad and Sammar Al Kerawe.

Samar, Behnaz and Sammar were cleaning passersby's shoes at various locations in Slovenia, conversing with their owners while Safa took the role of an observer. During shoe cleaning, they navigated the power dynamics by conversing on expectations from those who have the status of a foreigner or are otherwise confronted with the role of being a foreigner in this country. After cleaning, the artists accepted voluntary contributions and photographed the cleaned shoes. Later, the four artists transformed the shoe photographs into images and sketches, filled with statements and comments from their owners.

The artists decoded social communication through street performances by navigating power dynamics and connecting them to a broader aspect of international politics and geopolitics within the context of contemporary times. From a shoe in Koper to a shoe in the British Museum in London, the process of decoding was mostly focused on decoloniality.

In addition to the exhibition, the artists will host a workshop in the format of a public performative journey named Embodying Decoloniality, which will take place at the same location, from 5 pm to 7 pm. Embodying Decoloniality is a public performative journey that uses performing arts and dance therapy techniques to navigate and unpack emancipatory communication. The workshop is inspired by the novel “A Tree Like Rain” by Samar Habib and is part of the SAMA public performative journeys and Community arts series by Samar Zughool.

Sign up for the workshop through contact@cityofwomen.org.

The public performative journey will last for two hours and may host up to 12 participants.

Collaborators:  Samar Zughool, Behnaz Aliesfahanipour, Safa Saad, Sammar Al Kerawe

Free entry

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"Education and awareness of children's rights in Egypt"

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Circle

In Egypt, Institute Circle (Zavod Krog) completed the project "Education and awareness of children's rights in Egypt", in the framework of which teachers, children and parents were educated about children's rights. These are often violated in Egypt and the projects that are aimed at education, raising awareness of the importance of respect children's rights and changing the attitude towards children in practice in families, schools and communities are extremely important.

76 pedagogues from schools and organisations took part in the project, who deepened and expanded their knowledge in the field during the trainings during the project children's rights, the Convention on the rights of the child, Egyptian legislation, coaching skills and various interactive learning methods and tools for teaching children on children's rights.

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"For her dignity - protection from violence, health and food for women and girls in Lebanon"

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Circle institute

Within the framework of the Institute Circle's project in cooperation with the partner Developmental Action without Borders - Naba'a and financial support from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia"For her dignity - protection from violence, health and food for women and girls in Lebanon", QUDWA educational workshops for parents were held.

Developed by UNICEF and the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs, the Qudwa methodology empowers parents to take responsibility for realizing children's rights and creating a safe environment for them in their communities.

The #QUDWA methodology aims to address the root causes of negative practices against girls, boys and women such as child labour, child marriage and violence against children and women. The goal of the QUDWA methodology (the word is derived from the Arabic word for good looks) is to simultaneously promote behaviours and norms that strengthen the well-being and dignity of children and gender equality.

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"How Can Intercultural Learning Contribute to Sustainable Living? A study case in Ljubljana, Slovenia".

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Disseminating and testing the outcomes of the case study with the public

In March 2022, the Anna Lindh Foundation for Euro-Med dialogue in Slovenia conducted and published a case study that documents on-hand practices of intercultural learning for sustainable living. The group who contributed to this case study come from different geographical locations and currently lives in Ljubljana, Maribor and Ptuj. 

Here you may have access to the study case:

http://povod.si/how-can-intercultural-learning-contribute-to-sustainable-living-a-study-case-in-ljubljana-slovenia-by-samar-zughool/ 

"Skuhna" a social enterprise for an intercultural society in Ljubljana, Slovenia

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People Celebrating

In 2012, Skuhna, a current member of the Anna Lindh Foundation in Slovenia, started their journey as a restaurant and a social enterprise led by migrants who live in Ljubljana to enhance open and intercultural societies through culinary arts, arts and cultural workshops.

Skuhna has always been located on Trubarjeva street in Ljubljana, which is a well-known street with its diversity. Sadly, due to gentrification and as tenants  Skuhna left Trubarjeva street in January 2023 with the increase in renting prices with the change of the owner. Skuhna had its two final events on 20 and 23 of January 2023; with great food and music workshops, Skuhna laid its intercultural and artistic legacy on Trubarjeva street in Ljubljana to move forward. 

Stay tuned and follow Skuhna's Facebook page and website to know more about their activities and a new location in the future. 

Skuhna often enriched our meetings with its rich and intercultural culinary. 

African Center of Slovenia

National Network
Slovenia
Address

TRZASKA 2, 1000 LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA
LJUBLJANA
Slovenia

Telephone
+386 590 203 18
Telephone (other)
+ 386 31 683 542
E-Mail
info@afriski-center.si
E-Mail (2)
ifadul@sfriski-center.si
Organisation Type
Non-Governmental Organization
Year of Establishment
1999
Fields of Activity
  1. International/Cultural relations
General Information
Structure: The African Center (ACS) is headed by the Chair and executive committee, voted by general assembly, which is composed of all the members of the ACS. Currently two people are employed full time, working on a project. Most of the activities of the ACS are carried out by volunteers and free lance contracts. Partners: ACS is a founding member of SLOGA, a platform organization for non-governmental, non-profit organisations that are active in the field of development cooperation, global learning and humanitarian aid. It cooperates closely with various Slovene NGOs. ACS has also close partners in Ireland and Great Britain, as it is currently working on a common project Budgetary yearly resources: approx. 60.000 EUR Sources: membership fee, projects, donations, co-funding contributions from governmental institutions (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) The main activities of ACS are focused on: projects, workshops, round tables and discussions, lectures and small publishing activity.
Mission and Objectives

The mission of ACS is to become an open organization, which will be recognized widely for its values and knowledge on African topics.
ACS wishes to secure equal possibilities in the society, respect for human rights, freedom, and responsibility for African immigrants.
In ACS we try to raise awareness about the mutual global connection.

Main Projects / Activities

ACS is currently conducting a EU commissioned project entitled: Images of Africa from an African Perspective, which is a Public Awareness and Capacity Building Programme that aims at raising awareness on development issues in the EU from an African perspective through the development and promotion of positive images of Africans and African countries and to build the capacity of African people living in the EU to deliver development education programmes focused on positive images of Africans and African Countries.
The project is conducted with two partners from Ireland and GB. In addition to the above project, ACS has conducted in the past several projects in the field of culture, youth education, music and theatre, development education and organized a number or lectures and round tables, focusing on promoting positive dialog, African culture, cultural exchange, mutual respect for cultural differences and tackling the issues of integration.

How can you contribute to the Network in your country?

ACS has very good experiences in working with partners on an international and national level. With these experiences as well as our stated objectives, we believe that ACS would be a valuable asset to ALF and could importantly contribute to the realization of its programmes.

Why do you want to join the ALF Network?

ACS would like to join ALF in order to enlarge its activities and exchange information and experiences also through cooperation with countries across the Mediterranean. We see a big potential in forming partnerships with ALF members. The ALF values and mandate for mutual respect of differences between cultures, religions, societies in general, as well as promoting the strong pluralistic civil society goes in line with the mission of ACS.

Contact (1) Full Name
EYACHEW TEFERA
Head of the organisation
EYACHEW TEFERA
Contact (2) Full Name
IDRIS FADUL