Connection and commitment beyond borders!
Since 2014, the Austrian Foreign Ministry has presented the annual Intercultural Achievement Award. The award is intended to honor outstanding civil society commitment to intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
Projects can be submitted in the categories of technology, sustainability, topicality, media and innovation.
The award has been significantly developed this year. The sustainability category now combines the cross-cutting area of environment/ecology and intercultural or interreligious challenges. A new category, Technology, was introduced to recognize innovative solutions in dialogue initiatives.
The 2021 winning projects, selected from over 230 submissions from around the world, come from Albania (Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Garden of Opportunities), Indonesia (Alternative Narrative from Credible Voices), Lebanon (Arab Culture and Arts Network) and Nigeria (Part-Time Teaching/ Coordinating Livelihood Skills).
The winners of the 2021 Intercultural Achievement Award are:
Technology Category:
Cooperation and Development Institute/Albania with the project “Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform (WBYCP)”.
The Western Balkans Youth Cooperation Platform creates a space for networking of different youth initiatives in the Western Balkans both online and offline. Young people from the region can share their concerns, connect and plan joint actions.
Sustainability category:
Centar za izgradnju mira (CIM) – Center for Peacebuilding/Bosnia and Herzegovina with the project “Garden of Opportunities”.
In the Garden of Opportunities, a space of exchange is created for people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds in which, among other things, they learn and work together on sustainable food production.
Actuality category:
Tiro Association for Arts/Lebanon with the project “Arab Culture and Arts Network (ACAN)”.
The Arab Culture and Arts Network in Lebanon creates a virtual cultural bridge between countries in the Middle East and enabled artists and artistic institutions to stay connected and support each other even in COVID-19 times.
Media category:
Ruangobrol.id/Indonesia with the project “Alternative Narrative from Credible Voices”.
On the website www.ruangobrol.id, de-radicalized people have their say, describing their motivations and experiences within terrorist organizations and their way back into society. With these authentic accounts of their experiences, young people are addressed and guided back to a peaceful path.
Innovation Category:
Future Prowess Islamic Foundation/Nigeria with the project “Part-Time Teaching/ Coordinating Livelihood Skills”.
The Future Prowess Islamic Foundation cares for over 2,000 orphans and children from disadvantaged families in Borno State, including many victims of the Boko Haram conflict. Through comprehensive care including school and apprenticeship training, the children are removed from extremist influences and can build a sustainable future.
Special award for integration in Austria:
Verein Soziales Netzwerk Oberndorf/Salzburg with the project “ISO Integration and Social Counseling Center”.
The Integration and Social Counseling Center (ISO) offers counseling for intercultural and social concerns of migrants with the aim of sensitizing the population in rural areas to integration and creating meeting spaces.
Special award “Best Austrian Project”:
Springboard Association for the Promotion of Talents/Vienna with the project “Go Digital!”
The digital divide between rich and poor is a phenomenon that reinforces social inequality and greatly reduces opportunities for young people from socially disadvantaged families. In online schooling times, not all students can participate well in lessons because they lack the technical infrastructure to do so. “Go Digital” therefore collects used laptops in order to donate them to needy young people with a migration background, among others.
Intercultural Achievement Award
www.intercultural-achievement.com
Preisträger 2021
www.bmeia.gv.at/themen/auslandskultur/intercultural-achievement-award/preisverleihung-2021
