Story sharing café tonight
The Youth Movement of Amnesty International in Iceland has a Story Sharing Café in Mál og Menning bookstore on Laugavegur today at 7 PM. The poster is by Kosmonatka. Ljósmynd/Aðsend
Today is the World Refugee Day, but it is celebrated annjually on the 20th of June. The Amnesty International Youth Movement has organized a "Story Sharing Café" to celebrate the day and it will be held in Mál og menning on Laugavegur 18 at 19 PM tonight.
There is no entrance fee and the event will be from 19-21 and people are encouraged to be early to get seats. The singer Kolbrún Óskarsdóttir Kusk will perform, but she won the first place in the competition Músíktilraunir 2022, Music Experiments 2022. After the event the musician Sibbi will conduct a "sing-along".
Learning through stories about what we have in common
The goal of this event is to give everyone a chance, regardless of their background, heritage and status to sit at a table and share their stories and hear other people's stories.
"We learnt this method from the Amnesty International in Finland and we are very excited to introduce it here in Iceland," says Árni Kristjánsson, youth and project manager of the Icelandic Amnesty International to mbl.is.
Amnesty International has 68 offices worldwide and the Icelandic office works closely with the nordic offices, especially the youth movement.
"We are very excited about the great reception we have had, but volunteers who are helping with this event come from the Red Cross and No Borders."
Human rights are for all of us
Kristjánsson says there is clearly a lot of interest for this event, especially within groups that are close to refugees in this country.
"Six to eight individuals who possibly do not know each other can sit at a table with the moderator and share their stories and experiences. At the tables are printed out questionaires and people can answer to their liking. The questions are easy and focus on daily activities that might bring back fun memories and stories. These kind of story events have usually resulted in a strong mutual feeling of how much we actually have in common, even though our background and heritage can be totally different."
Amnesty points out that sometimes the emphasis on what we have in common is the best way to highlight that human rights are for all of us.
