The non-governmental organization (NGO) "Yellow Butterfly" from Nikšić has announced an art and literary contest on the topic "Yes, we are friends", which is intended for young people from Nikšić with and without intellectual disabilities. The contest is open until May 26, and an exhibition of submitted works is also planned.
"High school students from Nikšić, young people with and without intellectual disabilities, young people from the Day Center for Children with Disabilities and People with Disabilities Nikšić, as well as members of other non-governmental organizations dealing with social inclusion and young people, have the right to participate. The goal of the contest is to increase the motivation of young people with intellectual disabilities and high school students to express their creativity and potential, and also to influence the development of equality in society and contribute to the reduction of stereotypes and prejudices," said Milica Kovačević from the aforementioned NGO.
The competition was announced as part of the "Give me a hand" project, which NGO "Yellow Butterfly" is implementing with the aim of strengthening the capacities of teaching staff, empowering high school students with intellectual disabilities and contributing to their integration. The target group of the project are teachers and teaching assistants, as well as high school students with and without intellectual disabilities.
"We want to provide an innovative methodology in educational inclusion and encourage greater understanding, acceptance, cooperation and tolerance, develop openness to others, their characteristics and diversity in facing many challenges and when young people with disabilities want to achieve equal access in all spheres of life. "Accepting diversity contributes to the reduction of discrimination, exclusion from society and violence among peers," Kovačević said.
She reminded that they realized four workshops on socio-emotional competences on the topic of self-esteem, self-control, empathy and tolerance, led by Marija Draganić Vulanović, MSc.
"As the final activity of the project, we planned to organize a round table entitled 'Socio-emotionally competent high school students: significance and challenges', which we would implement in cooperation with the municipal Secretariat for Culture, Sports, Youth and Social Welfare", said Kovačević.
As she pointed out, the networking of key social actors is a prerequisite for improving the environment for increasing social inclusion in the student community and the importance of innovative methodological approaches in educational inclusion.
"Our goal is to raise the awareness of the social community and overcome prejudices because people with disabilities are an important link in our society and they need great strength to fight against the prejudices society imposes on them. The significance of the project for the local community is that it promotes inclusion and equality so that they become our resource for development, growth, support in building inclusive approaches," said Kovačević, who is the project coordinator.
The project "Give me a hand" is financed by the Regional Program of Local Democracy (ReLOaD), financed by the European Union (EU), and implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) within five clusters, among which is the "Together Nikšić and Plužine" Cluster. .
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