After the launch of the first video about the diversity of foreign tastes and respect for foreigners living in Slovakia, the Slovak Platform for Development Organizations – Ambrela faced hundreds of hateful comments on social networks. Such expressions of intolerance only confirmed how important it is to bring those topics to people outside the so-called ‘nonprofit bubble’. Therefore another video ’Tolerance is fair-play‘ was published (thanks to cooperation with the Cosi agency) – moving from the gastronomic area to sports. The video points out that on the field it’s not a duel: us vs. them, but in a real life we should focus on finding commonalities rather than cultural differences. The new video answers the questions: ‘How is (not only Slovak) football related to migration phenomena; How tolerant is Slovakia as an EU country; and also Why tolerance is fair play ‘.

In Slovakia, you can find a football field or a stadium pretty much everywhere. Every single village has its own place to play this favourite game and whole families are somehow involved in it. Therefore the choice of the theme for Ambrela’s second video was clear. Mr Maros Kemeny, the director of the Cosi agency clarifies the concept of the second video: “We wanted to point out the topic of tolerance towards people of other cultures or different skin colours as simply as possible –through the phenomenon of football racism, which is unfortunately still present in our stadiums. Its typical manifestation that many players of a different culture, ethnicity or skin colour have to face is ‘booing’. That’s why we’ve turned this reprehensible expression of intolerance into a simple wordplay positive message – from ‘Boo-Boo’ to ‘Let’s BE tolerant’ (perfectly working in Slovak language).” The video can be watched here: https://youtu.be/Oq3CSjWDwM0

The protagonists of the video themselves come from the Western Balkan’s countries, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. They have found their second home and job in Slovakia, but they are still interested in how their loved ones are doing in those low-income countries. All these particular life stories make our ‘Faces of Migration’ campaign (as a part of ‘Global Goals and Migration’ project) more clear and understandable. Thanks to real faces of migration Ambrela seeks to increase the awareness of Slovak citizens about the reasons and ways of migration through the prism of SDGs.

Mr Daniel Kaba, the executive secretary of Ambrela, invites Slovaks to watch an online discussion with the representatives of Ambrela’s member organizations. They are ready to share the stories from the countries affected by humanitarian crisis and forced migration. “You will get a chance to understand the projects of educating Syrian children in Lebanon; improving the living conditions of people in need in Uganda’s second poorest region; or the project of supporting Ethiopian people who fled to neighbouring Sudan due to the ongoing military conflict in the Tigray region. There will also be a view on the topic of migration from the representative of the Slovak Agency for Development Cooperation – SlovakAid, which co-finances those projects,” concludes the invitation Mr Kaba. The online discussion (on February 11 via Facebook Live) is an additional activity supporting the video’s launch in Slovakia.

About our Ambrela:

Slovak Platform for Development Organizations – Ambrela is an umbrella organization of 28 mostly non-governmental organizations that focuses on development cooperation, humanitarian aid, global development education and sustainable development in Slovakia and abroad. The platform represents the common interests of its members both domestically and internationally.

Since 2019, together with six European partners, Ambrela has been implementing the SDGs and Migration project, supported by the European Commission’s Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) programme. The ‘Faces of Migration‘ campaign is one of the outputs of this project. Its aim is to raise awareness of the diversity, tolerance and coexistence of people from different cultures through specific life stories and look at the migration phenomenon through the prism of SDGs. Above mentioned videos and online discussions are part of this campaign. Videos’ production was also supported by Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation – SlovakAid. More information on: www.ambrela.org, www.tvaremigracie.ambrela.org and www.tvaremigracie.sk