The group ‘Men who Knit,’ founded by Chilean artist Claudio Castillo works to criticize the patriarchal social order and draw attention to the discrimination experienced by LGBT individuals. The twelve men, aged 26-42, meet one day every month to knit in an open space in the city.
In 2004 Nesim Öner, from Uzunova village near Diyarbakır, stepped on a mine while grazing his livestock, losing one arm and one eye. Six years later, at the encouragement of his gym teachers, began running. Within two years, became an athlete in the Paralympics, winning the gold medal in the Ipc Athletics European Championships in the 1500 meter race.
The Startblok project launched in The Netherlands provides Dutch citizens and refugees between the ages of 18 and 28 with low-rent apartments where they can live together. The apartments, where 500 young people lay aside their prejudices in order to create their futures together, include social areas that allow the youth to learn about each other’s cultures.
‘Future Vision,’ an acrobatic group founded by eleven young people in Rwanda, brings together youth from the disadvantaged sections of society. Group gymnastic and acrobatic moves, which depend on mutual trust, help the youth to leave behind their mistrust among the various groups in this country which experienced a genocide in 1994.
The ‘Lice Seeks Justice Platform’ was established in response to demands to reveal the truth and assure the trial of perpetrators of human rights violations during a military operation held in Diyarbakır-Lice on October 22 1993, Formed by relatives of the victims on October 22, 2013, the date that the case would expire due to the statue of limitations, the Platform works tirelessly to broaden the scope of the investigation, find new witnesses, inform the public and bring about justice.
In the United States, immigrants organizing mainly through the social media held ‘A Day Without Immigrants’ in Washington D.C. and other cities to protest Trump’s immigration policies. Many restaurants, carpentry shops and greengrocers closed their doors in order to draw attention to how the absence of immigrants in America would affect the economy.
Saudi Arabian feminist singer Majed Al-Esa shot a video to draw attention to the system, which gives custody of women’s work, travel, health and marriage rights to men. In the video, titled ‘Hwages’ (‘Concerns’), the women accompanying Al-Esa flout the roles forced upon them by society to ride skateboards, play basketball, dance, and ridicule the ban on women driving and the restrictions of their right to travel.
In Istanbul the Çorbada Tuzum Olsun (‘Having one’s Finger in the Pie’) Association, with support from volunteers of every age, class and political view, distribute soup every evening to around 150 people in the Taksim area, and in the house they have opened, provide free shelter for thirty people.
In Nigeria, Victoria Emah Emah has, with the charity she has founded, become a beacon of hope to children orphaned by AIDS. Working against the traditional belief system which attributes misfortunes that befall people to ‘satanic powers’ and causes these children to be branded as witches, she strives to explain to the community that AIDS is a health issue.
In England a group of activists at Oxford University, noticing that that a dormitory had remained unuses since 2015, occupied the building and turned it into a shelter for the homeless. Holding several campaigns to draw attention to homelessness, which has been increasing since 2010, the activists met with the University administration, assuring that building would continue to house homeless people.
In Istanbul, the group DEF RAP, formed to bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing impaired and other members of society with music and dance, released their first song, ‘Eller Konuşur’ (‘Hands Talk’). Rapping in sign language, the group aims to make this language more widespread and allow the four million people left in silence to participate in everyday life.
In the United States, when an oil pipeline was planned to pass through an area considered sacred by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, thousands of Native Americans and environmentalists launched a resistance to the project, which would destroy the Tribe’s cultural resources and threaten their water supply. At the end of the months-long protests, the project was halted and it was announced that alternate routes were being explored.
In Istanbul, Syrian women who meet at the Okmeydanı Social Assistance and Solidarity Association share not only the products they have prepared at the Woman-to-Woman Refugee Kitchen, but also hope, carrying on this mutual support as a token of “women’s solidarity against war, exile and borders.”
