EMMIR students participating in internships with the Blank Pages project were invited to conduct a workshop as part of the IOM Summer School at Charles University in Prague on 28 September 2020. 40 participants of the summer school attended the Blank Pages workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by Gabriela Yanez Atiencia, Ju-Yu Wu, Abrham Alihonay Ayele, Melaku Takele Dessie, and Michal Musialowski, as part of the EMMIR internship project “Blank Pages: Through their Eyes.” The workshop was designed to share the work and experience of Blank Pages and to offer a series of activities to foster creative expression as propose it as a tool of empowerment that opens new channels of communication and connection.
For me, the trip to Prague was a nice opportunity to exchange our experiences with other people studying or working in the same field. The feedbacks from the participants also helped a lot to improve our workshops in the future. - Ju-Yu Wu, C9 student and Blank Pages intern
The workshop in Prague was organized by IOM with Charles University And gathered practitioners and academics from diverse sectors. The Blank Pages team participated in one of the days of this week long workshop. The participation was both friendly and interactive, I believe all of us felt that way. - Abraham Ayele, C9 student and Blank Pages intern
The IOM Prague Summer School on Migration studies was a unique opportunity for me in a way that gave me the chance to connect with people from around the world (students, academics, and professionals of migration). On the other hand, I have never visited a beautiful city like Prague. I was stunned by the architectural masterpieces of the city. It is worth visiting again. - Melaku Takele Dessie, C9 student and Blank Pages intern
The Blank Pages project is run in the months July-September 2020. The main aim of the project is to inspire and motivate others to re-discover creative expression as a space of empowerment and a tool for sharing their voices with the world. Following this concept, the Blank Pages project team has conceptualised a series of art-based creative workshops in a refugee camp in Oldenburg, Germany with the goal of providing a platform for the participants to express themselves in a free and creative way and share their voices with others. The works produced during this series of workshops will be exhibited in Oldenburg in November and December (location pending and to be announced).