“Singing in the Rain” – to Celebrate Diversity and Stand up against Racism Action of KURVE Wustrow group on Lüchow Market Square Marks International Day Against Racism “We are coming from different parts of the world, and sharing the vision that everyone is equal – independently of our colour of skin, religion, etc.” says Yevhen Chekarov, Ukranian participant of KURVE Wustrow’s Practitioner Training ‘Campaigning for Nonviolent Change’. And Paul Beitzer from Germany adds: “We are concerned about the ongoing normalization of racism and discrimination, and the resulting increase of violence, through the shift towards the right wing in many of our societies. We want to set a sign against that.” In this context, the participants decided to turn their newly gained skills and methods into practice and to set a sign against racism and xenophobia, in the context of the International Day Against Racism. In spite of the rain, the group with people from Nepal, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Georgia, India, Sudan and Germany on Thursday, 14th of March 2019 organised a performance which took place on the market square of Lüchow. Based on the slogan ‘Diversity is beautiful’ they opened the opportunity for passers-by, to get into dialogue with the participants about what racism means to them. In the exchanges it became clear that racism and discrimination are not problems that appeared only through the growing shift to the right in the last years, but that they have a long history and are rooted deeply in all our everyday lives and our ways of thinking. Fatmire Ajdari from North Macedonia explains: “We want to invite people to reflect about what each of us can do about racism – in their everyday life, and in society.” And Manisha Shrestha tells: “In my country Nepal, for example, we have different ethnic groups, different religions, different castes and races. So my organisation “Women for Human Rights”, is organising events where we celebrate our differences, under the motto “unity in diversity”. The action in the context of the campaign” Stand Up Against Racism” thus enabled exchange and mutual understanding, which are important steps towards tolerance and active steps to counter the current developments. On 30th March, KURVE Wustrow is inviting for an argumentation workshop against right-wing paroles You can register at aufstehengegenrassismus [at] kurvewustrow [dot] org (aufstehengegenrassismus(at)kurvewustrow.org)