The main aim of this project is to overcome and diminish deeply rooted intolerant forms of
behavior that generally exist in our society and are frequently reflected in bullying, disrespectful and hateful behavior of students towards their peers who are different in any way and/or are members of certain minority groups. Our AIM in this project is to make our students aware of current, and even more, long-term dangers caused by these acts of intolerance and discrimination that have been neglected in our society for so long. Since we believe the roots of such dangerous forms of behavior are deeply embedded in our nation’s mentality and general upbringing we also believe it is necessary to start the reverse process of learning about tolerance and accepting differences from an early age.
Our society today is abundant with various types of discrimination and different forms of prejudice which we witness on a daily level. Children and adults are regular victims or witnesses of growing intolerance reflected in psychological and physical violence. Since these types of intolerant and violent behavior have been present in our society for an extremely long period of time it was only natural to find them spreading drastically throughout our schools in the form of bullying. Children who are seen as “different” for various reasons (ethnic,religion,gender identity,different forms of disability) are often victims of bullying which can vary from simple exclusion from the rest of the peer group to extremely high levels of psychological and even physical violence sometimes even leading to tragic ends. Our school system, local authorities, NGOs s,and other institution spite of their official statements, very often turn a blind eye to these problems or do not have the way to deal with them in an appropriate a way. As a result of this, students find their way out by leaving the schools where they used to be victims of bullying.Intolerance and discrimination are deeply rooted in our society. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. aims to promote tolerance and equal opportunities for youngsters whose ages range from 12-13. We have to teach our children to accept people who are different from them and to recognize the beauty in those differences and not threats of any kind. Our children should be taught and encouraged to dismiss prejudices and treat “different” people with the respect they deserve.
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