Home New Home - The Project
1.000 young refugees and locals participate in training workshops in 6 cities of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine with the aim to produce up to 100 short films for the refugee crisis . Youth from 8 nations and 2 religious have being educated, worked and created artistic work together in a project titled Home New Home for a period of 5 years (2015 -2020).
The first stage of the project Home New Home took place in Lesvos in 2015 during the pick of the refugees flows in the Island . From October 2015 to May 80 participants (60 local -20 refugees and migrants) were trained by 4 tutors in 3 workshops in making films on the refugee crisis. The outcomes were 3 films- “Half Yard”, “Simply Solidarity” and “Niki”. The films made a premiere in the AegeanDocs Documentary Festival on September 2016 in 22 public screenings in 11 islands Aegean and in a special event at Goethe Institute Athens October 2016. The most important achievement of the first year was the creation of an intercultural network consisted by the local and the foreigners participants of the project. This first successful implementation guided the organizer of the workshops, the educational Institute for documentaries History Doc in to the next steps : The expansion of the project in other territories with regional and international partners.
In the second year HistoryDoc with the support of the Anna Lindh Foundation , in cooperation with Non-Profit Organizations, Artistic Associations and Universities from Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine and the support of the Goethe Institut, planned and implemented a 12-month action of the Home New Home in five welcoming Syrian refugees cities with the aim of creating a multinational intercultural network of active citizens for the cultural reception of the refugees, with education work and artistic creation together with refugees, locals and migrants.. The cities of the project were: Mytilene, Izmir, Amman, Tire and Ramallah.
The partnership with the support of Anna Lindh Foundation consisted by 5 educational partners: 1. Arab Women Media Center, Amman Jordan (AWMC) - ALF Jordanian Steering Committee Member
2. Young Palestinian Filmmakers Society, Palestine
3. Yasar University, Izmir-Turkey (Faculty of Communication, Radio, TV and Cinema Department)
4. Istanbouli Theater -Tyro Association for Artists, LEBANON
5. Storydoc,Athens,
The methodology of the project was the same as in the first year After public calls published by the partners and distributed in the refugee camps 200 participants selected. 100 in Lesvos and 25 in each of the other cities- in total 200 Greeks, Turks, Jordanians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians , Afghans, Iraqis and Kurds. The participants were taught in mixt groups by 18 distinguished tutors in the techniques of making films. The project offered for free 18 units of filming equipment. For the creation of the documentaries in the 5 cities, were organized in total, 15 three-day training and production seminars (November 2016 - May 2017).The education process had also the aim of understanding people with different origin,, getting to know their different cultural heritage and , developing channels of mutual understanding and mutual respect.
The result of this activity captured in 16 short documentaries, created by the citizens of the host countries and by the refugees.
Home New Home in Athens
The huge participation in workshops in Lesvos motivated the interest of the Ministry of Education of the Hellenic Republic. The Ministry supported the project and characterized it as a pilot one with the aim expand in the capital of the country. This development led the organizers to expand the program in Athens, in cooperation with the Goethe Institut Athen , the Municipality of Athens under the Open Schools program with exclusive donor the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Attica Region. Also, the Athenian News Agency APE-MPE took over as communication sponsor of the project under the auspice of the Secretariat for Migration and Refugee Policy’s Communication of Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media, of Hellenic Republic.
Through a public call 217 participants selected. The huge number of refugees (90), who have applied for participation, created new educational needs, which covered with a donor from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, specifically supporting the implementation of relevant workshops in Athens and Lesvos With the subsequent documentaries, as well as the creation of the website www.homenewhome.gr.
The workshops in Athens(February, April and June 2017) were held at the 8th Gymnasium, an educational institution part of the Open Schools program. The aim of the program in Attica was to produce 10 short films with the same subject matter.the final outcome was the production of 23 short films.
The International Seminar
In Spring 2017 (March), an International Seminar was organized in Athens on the subject of Educating of Others and Intercultural dialogue. Speakers at the conference were European, Turks and Arab experts in an intercultural dialogue. The aim of the Seminar was to support the Action in practice and theoretically and to show values and best practices of solidarity for the refugees in society. The Seminar was broadcast on live streaming and was attended by group of teachers from Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Rhodes, Thessaloniki and Didimoticho.
2018 - 20- The Expansion of Home New Home.
The results outcomes of the project and the massive participation of refugees and local citizens overcame the plans of the organizers. Instead of 20 short films in total (that was the commitment of the project) , 39 films produced with such an artistic quality as they have been selected and awarded by distinguished International Film Festivals. More than 27.000 viewers attended the public screenings of the project not only in the territories of the project but beyond-Italy, Romania and France. This success led in an expansion of the project for 2 years. The first stage of the expanded project is being implemented in the region of Attica,Greece and in Lesvos Island and later on, in winter 2018- spring 2019 in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. So far (Spring 2018) 800 local and refugees participants have been involved in the project from the begging. The goal is to attract in addition 200 participants and to produce 100 short documentaries till 2020. The final event will be a festival in the 6 cities of the project in October 2020.