May 23rd, Vake Park, Tbilisi, Georgia - Droni HUMAN LIBRARY
Stereotypes are everywhere, including Georgia. Nika is a 21 years old Georgian boy and he is a Feminist. "Every time when I am telling that I am Feminist, I see the surprise on peoples faces, they always insist that Feminism is only about women and ask me how can a men be Feminist. I decided to take part in Human Library and be a Feminist "book", because I want to share my stories and promote equality between men and women.
Alvi is a Spanish volunteer in Georgia, he doesn't believe in God but he truly believes in justice, friendship and peace. "I decided to take part in Human Library and be the Atheist "book", because the strongest stereotype I faced in Georgia, was about Atheists. As the country is very conservative, people always ask me about my religion, but when they see I am not a believer, they always ask me lots of questions about my morals, what I believe and somehow people think that I am dangerous. I wish I was able to share my opinion and stories with local people.
Everybody
can be an open book, because we all have a story to tell.
This is the core principle animating the Human
Library, an innovative project that uses
dialogue and human interaction as a social medicine against prejudices and
stereotypes.
A human library is collection of people who want to
share their own story with others. Visitors to a human library can borrow
'people on loan' and satisfy their curiosity by asking questions in an
informal, one-to-one chat. In this way, visitors get to know the person behind
the label and can deconstruct their own preconceptions.
This is what the Human Library project is all about:
breaking stereotypes through direct confrontation, but always in a humorous,
fun way.Despite the Human Library Project reached
its third edition this year, it remains a quite unique and profitable tool for
social improvement in Georgia. International volunteers from all over Europe
will work together with locals to ensure an international spirit to the
project. Although the target is local people and specifically the most conservative
parts of society, Non Governmental Organization DRONI truly believes in the contribution
of international cooperation.
By spreading the word
of equality and human rights in Tbilisi and in Georgia, we would like to make
an impact to the society as a whole. Thus, whoever will be willing to help us,
will have the chance to give his/her own contribution to make this one a better
world.
You can find more information about the event on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/human.library.droni) and on our blog (https://dronihumanlibrary.wordpress.com).
What are our objectives?
1. We are organizing the project in open air space, the event is free of charge for all the visitors and participants. The event is fully non-profit and organized without any economical reward by the local volunteers together with a creative group of international volunteers from Europe;
2. The event is implemented to raise awareness about cultural differences, ethnic minorities and social issues.
3. Each visitor is offered a non formal way of sharing the experience and interesting stories from "human" books who were somehow marginalized by the society.
4. The social situation in Georgia nowadays represent a somehow unique ground on which different parts of society can test their attitude to cooperate together and be an example to follow in other contexts.
Who we are?
Youth Association DRONI is a non-governmental youth
organization with the mission to promote the establishment of a modern,
healthy, educated and perfect society. In order to meet this task the
association has been implementing the educational and Youth development programs.
Human Library Project has already been implemented twice and because of its success it will be held for a third time, but to reach this goal we need your help.
Our funding goal is 750 USD, which will provisionally be spent for promotion, in order to reach
as much people as possible from all levels of society.
For further information about DRONI check out our website http://droni-youth.org.
What We Need?
- Promotional materials: fliers, posters, postcards, booklets...
- T- shirts for the books and volunteers;
- Food and drinks for the books and volunteers;
- Transportation for the books who are living in regions;
- Materials to decorate the venue, to make it more attractive for the visitors;
- Professional tools to finish recording the documentary about the project, which will help us in future to have some everlasting memory of our event and spread the voice of human rights all over Georgia.
How to contribute?
We will appreciate your contribution with any amount of money. Feel free to join us in Vake Park, in case you happen to be in Tbilisi on 23rd of May. For more information about the location and how to visit us, please join our event on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/1604893309757374/).