Portugal
participants
The Human Library event has three main aims and objectives. The first one is to promote discussion on topics that aren’t common or even taboo in our society. In this event, he had the chance to hear about issues related to transsexuality and solo parenting, two topics that still face discrimination in our society. The second goal is related to social inclusion. By addressing these sensitive subjects, we expect that our participants became more aware of these situations and promote a more inclusive message in our society. The final objective is to provide information to our audience. Like I previously stated, the majority of these topics are difficult situations in our society. Due so, we asked experts in these areas to highlight us with their knowledge.
Organized by ESN Lisboa in cooperation with P.O.W.E.R. Consulting, the Human Library conference happened on the 27/02/2020 in the ISPA University.
The Human Library intents to build a positive framework for conversations that can challenge stereotypes and prejudices through dialogue. In our Human Library, books are human beings and the pages are their everyday lives. In this edition, we had the chance to open to 6 different books: Homeless people, Solo Parenting, Transsexuality, Veganism, Endometriosis, Zero Waste, and Entrepreneurship.
In the Human Library, it is possible to address difficult questions and taboo topics. Also, it is expected to be an open space for the audience to ask questions related to these subjects.
The Human Library had an impact on the view that our target group has on society. With their participation, our international students, ESN volunteers, and the local community (represented by the higher education students from ISPA) became more socially aware of the problems that our speakers face daily. This event was an important step for our target group to be an agent of change that our world requires to become more inclusive. We were also able to establish the basis for a new partnership with P.O.W.E.R Consulting. We were supposed to organize another conference with them, this time related to mental health problems. Unfortunately, do to the coronavirus, we had to cancel this conference. He expect to organize this conference in the next academic year.