Are people from different cultures and countries able to communicate without using a spoken language?
We say YES! For this reason, we invite young people from 6 to 18 and their parents to our festivals themed: Find a common language!
The festivals will take place in 3 locations for one weekend:
12-14.5.2023 with Iguanas in Munich/ Germany. Programm
30.6.- 2.7.2023 with Circus Upsala in Zeitz/ Germany. Programm
22- 24.9.2023 with Unison in Yerevan/ Armenia. Programm
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What you can expect:
In the capital of Bavaria:
At the festival in Munich, our focus is on wheelchair basketball as a non-verbal means of communication, including interaction and break down of barriers and advantages. By participating in different training stations, you will learn about different aspects of wheelchair basketball: from wheelchair handling to dribbling and dice throwing. To enable the inclusion of all participants, posters will be printed to explain the game visually. The festival programme is complemented by the activities of the invited partner organisations from Zeitz and Yerevan. For example, Upsala Zirkus e.V. will offer a minilaboratory with circus elements and Unison NGO will invite you to join a move and dance workshop to experience the language of movement.
Afterwards, the participants can try out what they have learned together with the professional athletes in a wheelchair basketball tournament.
As a highlight, the german national wheelchair basketball team, (U22), the team from Yerevan and the Iguanas will show the master class of wheelchair basketball and hold a friendly tournament.
In the course of the festival, a video message to the future participants of the festivals in Zeitz and Yerevan will be created.
In the new capital of street circus:
The festival in Zeitz, the home of Upsala Zirkus e.V., will be a big creative laboratory: circus elements and wheelchair basketball supported by music as an international and non-verbal language will create a new inclusive safe space where everyone can find their expression. The participants will learn different circus disciplines and wheelchair basketball elements, create music with unusual objects and show a performance at the end of the festival. The activities of the partner organizations are included into the colourful programme: furthermore there will be an armenian music performance and an inclusive dance workshop.
The highlight of the festival will be the presentation of the results of the laboratory.
A video message for the participants of the festivals in Armenia and Munich will be filmed in Zeitz as well. Soon you will find our detailed programme here!
In the capital of the oldest Christian country in the world:
At the end of September, the festival will take place in Armenia: There the focus is on non-verbal communication in general. The theme of the entire festival series “Finding a Common Language” finds its logical culmination here. Not only newcomers from Armenia, but also from Georgia take part in the festival. Together they learn about different aspects of inclusion. Unison NGO and many local partners offer different activities: “Inclusion in Action”, games where everyone can experience a disability: using wheelchairs, finding a seat as a “blind person” etc.; darts and/or bocce competition; first aid course; learning an Armenian dance; learning the basics of Armenian and international sign language. In addition, the wheelchair basketball players of the RBB München e.V. will offer try outs and the Upsala Zirkus e.V. will offer another, but smaller creative music laboratory.
The highlight of the festival is the performance of the award-winning inclusive chamber choir of Paros.
With the recording of the third video message, all three festivals and thus also the participants from Yerevan, Munich and Zeitz will be brought togehter. All videos will be presented afterwards online.
All festivals are focused on interaction and inclusion, so that everyone – from young to old – can join us at any time. All events are barrier-free!
About our partners:
Unison NGO for Support of People with Special Needs is a leading organization advocating for the rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Armenia. With the mission to achieve full inclusion of PWDs, Unison regularly designs and implements grant-funded projects and other activities aimed at improving physical accessibility and access to information, promoting PWDs’ placement in gainful employment, fostering inclusive education, enhancing coordination and cooperation between disability-oriented organizations and other initiatives aimed at improved general well-being and social, cultural and economic integration of PWDs.
Zirkus Upsala e.V. is a non-profit organization that has been reintegrating children and young people from social risk groups into society using the methods of circus education in St. Petersburg since 2000. Due to the political situation, the members of the organisation had to flee to Germany, where they now combine professional circus and theatre arts directly with social and refugee work.
Since its foundation, the wheelchair basketball club RBB München Iguanas e.V. has been working with young people and schoolchildren from Munich and the surrounding area and has also run several inclusion workshops for refugees. Wheelchair basketball is the only sport in which people with and without disabilities, regardless of age and gender, can compete with and against each other on an equal footing. The wheelchair becomes the sport equipment. No language skills are needed for wheelchair basketball, as all communication is non-verbal and intuitively.
Antares Media Holding is a publishing and printing house as well as advertising and marketing agency that uses modern technologies to ensure high quality products. The company was founded in 1992 and has published more than 2000 books to date.
The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office as part of the programme “Expansion of Cooperation with Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia” and by the Bavarian State Ministry for Family, Labour and Social Affairs: