Training Course: “Violent Extremism vs Intercultural Dialogue and Peace” in Durres, Albania

EKVALIS had three representatives in the Training Course: "Violent Extremism vs Intercultural Dialogue and Peace" in Durres, Albania. In this project participated 30 young people from nine countries ( Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Serbia and Turkey). During this training the participants had a chance to practice intercultural learning and dialogue, and learn different ways to prevent violent extremism. They also talked about hate speech as a new and popular factor of radicalization. The project was organized with many different activities such as:

•  Defining terms such as "radicalization", "violent extremism", "coexistence" and "peace” with work in groups and help from the trainers.
•  Joint discussions in which the participants concluded that prevention of hate speech is important in the prevention of many of the negative phenomena previously discussed.
• Community profiling - participants were divided in national teams to represent their country and the presence of negative phenomena in their societies related to violent extremism.
• Talking with Albanian experts in the field of violent extremism.
• Finding a way to break stereotypes and prejudices. - House of Parliament

In their free time, the participants had a chance to hang out together and learn a lot about the other countries regarding their culture and traditions while making many new friendships. After their return in North Macedonia, the EKVALIS team organized two follow-up workshops in "Brakja Miladinovci"- High School in Skopje. In these workshops the team tried to convey the knowledge they acquired on the training to the first year students in the high school with the similar activities. The Training Course: "Violent Extremism vs Intercultural Dialogue and Peace" was financially supported by the European Youth Foundation and the Council of Europe.