Celebrating Difference Campaign

About this grant

Through the Celebrating Difference Campaign, the Electoral Institute of South Africa works to address the issues of human rights, racism, sexism, and religious and cultural diversity in the classroom. The goal of the project is to enable educators to be both responsive to, and proactive about, discrimination at all levels within the school community. Multiyear funding will allow the project to expand beyond the classroom and into surrounding communities, with the schools continuing to be a central part of the broader communities’ understanding of human rights and tolerance of racial and cultural diversity. Activities will include evaluating the project and its impact since its inception; expanding the project to 16 additional schools that will extend it beyond the classroom into surrounding communities; assisting educators in using the educational materials; and organizing education programs within the schools and their communities that address human rights and antiracism/antisexism education.Accomplishments during the past two years included producing education and resource materials to assist educators; holding roundtables to provide the opportunity for students and teachers to discuss and share their experiences regarding racism, sexism and xenophobia; developing model lessons for classroom use; and creating a video series on the challenges of racism and ethnicity for the classroom.