In late September, four of Woodcraft Folk’s young members spent a week in Mollina, Spain attending an IFM-SEI seminar titled ‘Choosing Anti-Racism. Radical Reorientation’. The participants included Eliza Dolly, Teo Patel, Mickey Lowe and Bean Dolly. One of the facilitators was also Woodcraft Folk’s Trustee Spike Asari. The project included seven different partner organisations, which involved participants from three different continents.
The seminar focused on the development of the participants’ knowledge, capacities, skills and reflections in regards to being actively anti-racist. The topics explored included the root causes of structural racism, the realities and barriers, human rights and sharing situations. The outcome of this specific seminar was a series of podcasts planned and created by the participants themselves that are soon to be published on Woodcraft Folk’s platforms and on IFM SEI’s. Their talking points covered casual racism, migration, racism within feminism and education, among many more.
Woodcraft Folk participant Bean (16) says
“Carrying on the project and meeting more people, I was glad to represent Woodcraft in the making of a podcast, talking about casual racism and real life experiences. One of the best opportunities I’ve had“
The project took place in the North-South centre of the council Europe, during their annual UYD conference. The conference looked at using global interdependence and solidarity, with this year’s topic being ‘Young people, peace and climate’. Joining IFM-SEI were eight other global organisations, including the European Youth Forum and OBESSU. Together these organisations, with guided seminars from the North-South centre of the council Europe, looked at how to build a more sustainable world together. The joint sessions looked specifically at building connections, the theatre of the oppressed and what structures are already in place globally to tackle these issues.
Woodcraft Folk participant Eliza (21) says:
‘It was an honour to be able to attend the UYD conference again. The experience is inspiring, and being surrounded by so many forward thinking minds is so important for a young person. The energy is was one of change, and I am so grateful that being a part of woodcraft has allowed me to be part of that’
As well as attending the conference, and IFM-SEI’s seminar, the participants were also active members of the UYD community. All Woodcraft Folk members performed in the farewell evening, with Bean being asked to also perform a piano piece in the closing ceremony. Furthermore, Woodcraft Folk were incredibly proud of Eliza and Mickey for running their own seminar for the other global organisations- looking at the topic ‘Sexual harassment, assault and rape in our differing cultures’.
Woodcraft Folk participant Mickey (19) says:
“I went to UYD 2022 and had such an incredible time that I had to go back again. IFM-SEI and woodcraft provided such a great opportunity for me to go and make great memories and friendships. I had such an amazing time I’ll do it again in a heartbeat”
The participants also had time to see the nearby city of Malaga, enjoy a traditional tapas evening and take part in an intercultural evening. You can find out more about the Choosing Anti-racism project here.
