To commemorate the International Day for Tolerance, which is celebrated on November 16, two member-cities of the Ukrainian ICC Network - Melitopol and Pavlograd - organised a joint working meeting on “Dialogue without Corners” for the young people from both cities.

Students from Melitopol Pedagogical University and members of the youth public organisation "CommunityPlus," the youth Center "Funduk", Euroclub, and TV studio "Positive Pavlograd," as well as the representatives of the ethnic minorities council and the interfaith committee of the Christian churches of Melitopol, joined the meeting to discuss the meaning of tolerance in today’s world, as well as ways to put it into practice in everyday life of the city communities.

“Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human” – reads UNESCO’s 1995 Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. It is around these concepts that the interactive dialogue was held. The participants also reviewed the progress made by their cities along the lines of the intercultural policy development within the last year presenting such practices as the Intercultural Fusion project (Melitopol) or the advancements of the intercultural youth camp Mosaics. Some suggestions were made for future actions to be undertaken in order to close the remaining gaps and build even more tolerant and respectful city communities.

At the end of the day, the participants of the “Dialogue without Corners” were invited for a fika (from Swedish ‘coffee’) and visited the Stone Tomb – a historical place near Melitopol. Having enjoyed their visit, young people from Pavlograd invited the youth of Melitopol to visit their city next year.

More info and pics can be found on the ICC-UA Facebook.