RYVU GAMES IN THE 2023 FESTIVAL OF LANGUAGES
The RYVU project is taking part in the 2023 “Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages”, an opportunity to celebrate diverse languages and cultures and the connections of the North East of England to the world through a range of online and in-person events and activities.
This is the third edition of the Festival of Languages coordinated by International Newcastle on behalf of the region. In 2021 and 2022, over 30,000 children and young people and more than 600 schools participated in the Festival. This year’s event comprises a wide range of diverse activities and resources, such as national speaking and singing competitions; creative writing and drawing projects for 7-18 year olds; and free language and culture resources that can be accessed anytime (more information in the poster below).
As part of the Festival, we are sharing RYVU downloadable games in multiple languages to provide fun, visual and creative ways for participants of all ages and backgrounds to explore refugee volunteers’ experiences and understandings of volunteering. Feedback from our stakeholder engagement activities over the past months is showing synergies between the experiences of refugees and volunteers in Uganda and the UK, which we hope to further explore during the Festival.
All three games developed in the context of RYVU research are available for free download in Arabic, English, French and Swahili - more information about RYVU games in the Festival of Languages are available here. The interactive games aim to improve policy and practice by raising awareness of the issues young refugee volunteers face, and explore what volunteering means to them in accessible ways.
The Festival also includes the blog series “How Languages Changed my Life”, sharing personal stories from people from the North East of England or who have come to live, work or study in the region, including the story of RYVU team member Dr Bianca Fadel.
You can sign up for activities and see the full programme in the Festival’s official website, as well as through the respective social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Any enquiries can also be sent by e-mail to the Festival’s coordinator Declan Baharini: info@expressyourselfne.com
