Within the Young Men Initiative project, Center E8 has launched the „Turn ON knowledge – turn OFF hate“ campaign in May 2020.
Using the visual identity created by the partners’ teamwork, Smart Kolektiv enriched the campaign with the mascot – pigeon Mirko. Center E8 included pigeoness (female pigeon) Marina in the campaign – Mirko and Marina had a chance to educate the youth about non-violent communication and prevention of extremism.
“Turn ON knowledge, turn OFF hate” campaign is designed as a positive answer to the negative messages often sent by society, about everyone who is in some form different. Pigeon Mirko is leading us through the campaign – Mirko is delivering peace, he is teaching us how to be respectful towards everyone, and showing us similarities and mutual interests, beliefs and values. Mirko is emphasizing the similarities, even in the situations we don’t believe similarities exist.
We can follow different religions, but we all believe in something. Our sexes or genders may be different, but we all need safe spaces. We can have different sexual orientations, but we are all searching for love. We can be born in different countries, under different circumstances, speak different languages, but we all need and want friends. Mirko has an important assignment – to teach us about tolerance, convince us that we are all equal, we all deserve equal rights and freedoms. Mirko’s secret “weapon” is knowledge, because he knows the only possible way to fight the fear of the unknown is through facts, not through hate.
Campaign started on the social networks of the Center E8 (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) with the visuals created by Smart collective, in order to present Mirko and his agenda to the audience in Serbia and region.
Center E8 has used its creative potential and produced a set of Viber stickers, in order to promote responsible communication, relaxed from hate speech. This activity was conducted through social media, but it was also used in the communication with the team of trainers, associates and supporters of Center E8’s work.
MIRKOs and MARINAs QUIZ
The most interesting part of the campaign is the „Turn ON knowledge, turn OFF hate“ quiz. The quiz started on 25th of May using the Many Bot app, connected to the Facebook Messenger. The quiz is consisted of 10 questions – each correct answer carries 1-point, incorrect answer carries -1 point. But, the goal of the quiz isn’t collecting points – quiz is designed to educate on the topics such as extremism, terrorism, racism, hate speech, tolerance etc. Every question is followed by an explanation and educative content, so it doesn’t matter the wheatear the answer was right or wrong (or randomly guessed) the learning opportunity is wide open. Quiz lasted for ten consecutive days, it was completed by more than 400 people from Serbia and the region. Pigeon Mirko and pigeoness Marina decided to reward the participants, by choosing randomly ten names every day at 2 o’clock sharp.
This might have been the most successful online campaign in the history of Center E8’s work, thanks to the pigeon Mirko and his patience and tolerance.
The activity is implemented by the Center E8 within the project Young Men Initiative II – Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equality and Prevention of Youth Extremism and Violence in the Balkans, supported by CARE International Balkans, Austrian Development Cooperation and Oak Foundation.
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