Justice Step to combat social discrimination

“YES to hello with a smile 
YES to communication & listening 
YES to helping & supporting 
YES to hospitality & understanding 
YES to a change
YES to a JUSTICE STEP”

Advocacy means pleading or arguing in favor of something raising the public’s consciousness about a particular issue consisting actions designed to draw a community’s attention to an issue and to direct policy-makers to a change. We (Sankusha from Nepal & Acela from Mexico) lived in Genova one year as volunteer in a program called “European Voluntary Service” by Erasmus Plus. So, in that time we perceive the Italian life in different mode. Genova is a port city, full of different people with different cultural backgrounds like European, Asian, South American, African and many more having their own kind of thinking. The city indeed is a small world itself. So, it can be difficult to adjust within each other. Therefore, we can also see as well as feel the love and discrimination. We think that the street is one of the major places where we can see and hear more differences and discriminatory behavior. But, what is social discrimination? It’s the unjust treatment of a person based on their social class, cultural background, education, etc.


For this reason, we thought about creating a campaign called JUSTICE STEP TO COMBAT SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION in collaboration with “il Ce. Sto” (hosting organization) to encourage dialogue and encounter between the citizens of Genova: whatever their origin is. Our goal was to fight against social discrimination because it prevents the actual encounter between the people and cultures of the world. For the campaign we made a slogan and set of questions and started asking people about what they thought about Genovese culture? Have they felt or heard any social discrimination in Genova? What prevents the real encounter between citizens in Genova? What could we do to improve the encounter?

We met people on public places like street, square, and restaurant. We took the interviews of tourist (Mexican), refugees (Afghanistan & Kasmir), Italian (Genovese) and immigrants (Bulgaria & Poland). Then, as promotion we created a Facebook page, a hashtag #Justicestep and a hand sign as the correct mark also referring the letter “J”. And, for this activity people of different cities all over the world sent us their photos with these characteristics.
And we also organized an event even on Facebook.
For the event we decided to make the presentation of the videos we took and talked regarding the topic Therefore, we combined all the videos along the subtitles in Italian. We gifted the pins to the participants.

According to the event, Genovese people are closed kind of people but not only towards refugees and immigrants but also towards Italians from other cities. The attitudes of some are always just insults and use of clandestine words which leaves a negative image and impact, more to foreigners. Some faced the problems even while searching the house, searching for the job, also in clubs and other places. It is all in the mentality of the people. Maybe bad education. We can say that there are different reasons which prevent people from meeting and knowing another people. If we continue instead behind screen for example to promote social encounter or remove the barrier of our mind, change the mentality. But, it seems that this generation is more open because there is always a chance for the change. And for the change we have to open ourselves. After all it depends on people and how they are brought up.

Sankusha Karki & Acela Lizbeth Ortega López