Executive Summary:

Global  Dignity is a story of     three friends - a prince, a philosopher, and a community leader and organizer, who share the belief that dignity has  the power to transform our world into a place where compassion, understanding, and love triumph        over intolerance, injustice and inequality. They founded Global Dignity in 2006 to engage young people around the world in a powerful and   immersive learning experience focused on the universal values of our shared humanity: dignity. In 2018, more than 250,000 young people, teachers, and volunteers from all walks of life celebrated Global Dignity Day in over 70 countries around the world. Since 2013, each year on the 3rd week of October famous and respectful representatives from different fields such as culture, education, business, music and media visit different public schools in Yerevan by the initiative of the Yerevan Hub. Over 6 years we initiated dignity talks in 12 schools, with 20 prominent speakers who volunteered to visit schools, invest part of their valuable time in meeting and talking to students, listening, and sharing experience on Dignity. The target group for Dignity Day was selected to be the 8th and 9th grades students, who actively engaged in interactive discussions, talked about dignity principles and values, shared their life stories and listened to the students’ ideas and views. Throughout the past 6 years over 500 children have been engaged in the Dignity celebration activities. The project was a great success as not only students were eagerly engaged in discussions but also our famous speakers expressed positive experience mentioning that such initiatives should be organized more frequently.

 

Goals:

- Initiate discussion about dignified life among teenagers and focus on their own role to lead and share dignity with peers.

- Engage famous people in dignity talks to trigger more of these type of conversations among adults as well.

- Introduce a non-formal way of teaching about new things by using interactive and inclusive approaches.

 

Impact:

- 500 students were engaged in dignity talk in their schools with change in attitude and understanding of dignity

- 12 schools received new approach to non-formal education with the Global Dignity talks’ format

- 20 prominent speakers were engaged in giving back to the community through dignity talks and continue collaboration with the schools

 

Organizations and Stakeholders:

Yerevan Municipality

Teach for Armenia Foundation

Global Dignity Foundation

Secondary schools in Yerevan