Switzerland
terre des hommes schweiz raises people’s awareness of development and socio-political issues. The imagine Basel youth project, or imagine for short, sees numerous young adults coming together to campaign for diversity and against discrimination. The high rate of participation helps to strengthen and reinforce young people’s identity as actors in civil society.
Hear from the people on the ground
Selin Gökpinar
22 years old
In 2001, terre des hommes schweiz launched its ‘Youth and Violence’ campaign and the organisation began working with young people from Switzerland in 2002. The first imagine Festival was held in Basel in 2002 and it has been attracting thousands of people ever since. The project has developed into an innovative youth organisation that deals with topics such as discrimination and diversity. The project has evolved from purely focusing on the festival to now encompass a wide range of events, workshops and different discussion formats.
The aim of the imagine project is for young people to actively campaign for diversity and against discrimination. Through these actions, they help to reduce discrimination.
Wide range of workshops and events. The young people involved in imagine organise up to 80 workshops a year on topics including discrimination in everyday life, homeland and flight. They also hold a variety of events such as ‘Living Libraries’ and panel discussions. Music events are used as another forum for communicating the topics that the project focuses on.
Creative and interactive objects for events. The young people at imagine design a variety of themed and interactive objects that feature at all their events.
Around 50 young adult volunteers work free of charge at the imagine project in various areas of work and small projects to help promote diversity and combat discrimination. The overall project is supported by the imagine project coordination team, consisting of eight adolescents and young adults. They are employed by terre des hommes schweiz at a low percentage of full-time employment of between 10% and 30%. They are responsible for implementing the objectives of participation, awareness-raising and youth culture.
The current project phase covers the years 2025–2027 with an annual budget of CHF 400,000.
Do you have questions about this topic?
Marco Müller
imagine Project Coordination and Youth Participation Department
terre des hommes schweiz
Kasernenhof 8
4058 Basel