. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .
Special to CPNN from Gwenaëlle Beauvais, Territorial Director, UNIS CITE Normandie (translation by CPNN)
For more than 20 years, the Unis Cité association has mobilized young people, in teams and in diversity, to carry out missions of general interest. The goal of these young people: is to find meaning by making themselves useful to others, to find their place in their relations with different people and opinions, to train and gain self-confidence.
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Youth initiatives for a culture of peace, How can we ensure they get the attention and funding they deserve?
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This year, in Normandy, 48 volunteers are mobilizing to meet with high school students across the region to raise awareness about Human Rights and Freedom. They are trained by the Institute of Human Rights and supported by the Regional Council to initiate debates with the pupils, to make them think and to support their engagement within the framework of the initiative Freedom Prize.
This program allows young people to speak freely and, thanks to the exchange between peers, to promote the initiative and expression of high school students in the region. It is part of a unique system , the Freedom Prize, which invites young people aged 15 to 25 from Normandy, other regions of France and internationally, to nominate each year a person or an organization engaged in a recent fight and exemplary in favor of freedom.
Recent winners of the Freedom Prize have been :
— 2019: Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist committed to the fight against global warming
— 2020: Loujain Al Hathloul, Saudi women’s rights activist
(Click here for the original French version of this article)