Auschwitz Pledge Foundation Launches Global Challenge to 'Erase Indifference'

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WARSAW, Poland, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Auschwitz Pledge Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO) with a mission to fight indifference to discrimination in all forms, launches its Erase Indifference Initiative on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In recent years, a number of communities have faced ever-increasing discrimination and threats. On several continents, women have experienced the restriction of their rights. Almost every day groups of people experience aggression and attacks because of their ethnicity, skin color or who they love. Well-known celebrities and many others have given hate speech a wide platform in social media. Anti-immigrant rhetoric fuelled the rise of nationalism and populist parties around the globe, materializing in the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which forced millions of refugees to suddenly leave their homes.

"Throughout history, we have seen the ramifications of indifference and how it can foster bigotry, violence, and even genocide," said Jacek Kastelaniec, General Director, Auschwitz Pledge Foundation. 'This is why the Auschwitz Pledge Foundation is launching a series of actions to target indifference and make it a topic of public conversation and scrutiny. Today we start with a Challenge, and later this year we will honor a group of well-known leaders who are fighting indifference, and learn from their knowledge and experience at our inaugural roundtable event. Through these efforts, we look forward to seeing and supporting ideas from great minds and compassionate people across the world who have found new and creative ways to tackle indifference."

The Erase Indifference Challenge, open now through March 3^rd, 2023, is a global competition to award grants and mentorship to organizations that have developed innovative solutions and modern tools for tackling indifference to racism, antisemitism, misogyny and discrimination against migrants, refugees and LGBTQIA+ communities. The Challenge is an open invitation to innovators, NGOs, universities, startups, private businesses, public institutions, religious associations, or informal groups to apply for financial support to fund, scale and promote their projects. It aims to heighten awareness, encourage conversation and drive action to dramatically reduce indifference on a global scale over the next ten years.

The Auschwitz Pledge Foundation was founded in 2021 to acknowledge the imminent dangers of indifference. One of its main goals is to react quickly to global events that lead to discrimination through indifference. In a pilot program last year, the Foundation supported a joint initiative from U.S.-based Right to Be and T'ruah for their proposed bystander intervention program, an anti-hate initiative combating antisemitism through a series of intervention online trainings. The project was intensified during last year's surge in antisemitic behavior and discourse in the U.S. Additional support was given to a Poland-based games company (GD Events), that addressed discrimination against refugee youth in Polish schools through gamification, at a time when almost 200,000 Ukrainian children joined the Polish education system. According to estimates, up to 600,000 refugee children in Poland remain outside of it.

"The 1920s and 1930s were a period of unprecedented development of the media but also spurred populism, demagogy, and language of hatred that led to the development of nationalisms, Second World War, and the Holocaust," said Piotr M. A. Cywiński, chairman of the board of the Auschwitz Pledge Foundation. "A century later - in a period of unprecedented expansion of social networks and mobile and online communication - the threats are similar. All this requires a serious public debate that crosses the borders of states, cultures, languages, and religions ." 

Applications for the Erase Indifference Challenge are open from January 26^th, 2023 to March 3^rd, 2023. To apply or learn more, visit eraseindifference.org.

Contact information:

Jacek Kastelaniec
[email protected]
EraseIndifference.org

Antoni Wolowski
[email protected]
EraseIndifference.org

SOURCE Auschwitz Pledge Foundation