Cartooning for Peace is today recognized as an editorialist for media and information literacy (MIL) and education to citizenship and international solidarity. The association has developed an image-based pedagogy that makes it possible to free speech and encourage debate on essential social issues. It also helps to develop critical thinking and analysis of information content.
Since 2016, Cartooning for Peace develops its educational actions abroad thanks to the programme “Cartooning for Peace and Democracy”, funded by the European Union. By using the educational power of press cartoons for MIL and citizenship for young and sensitive audiences, the programme aims to promote a culture of peace and democracy in nine countries – Morocco, Palestine, Israel, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Canada and Ethiopia.
In Ethiopia, Cartooning for Peace works with UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA/UNESCO), the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, the Alliance Ethio-Française (AEF), the Embassy of France to Ethiopia and representative to the African Union and Ethiopian press cartoonists to develop a range of activities that will combine the skills and commitment of the partners to build an original project in peace education, media and information literacy through press cartoons.
This project is rooted in Cartooning for Peace’s participation in the World Press Freedom Day organized by UNESCO in May 2019 and is part of a long-term partnership perspective between the various partners.
The actions will be carried out in the following way: first of all, relying on the talent of the Ethiopian draftsmen involved in the project, Elias Areda, Henok Demessie, Birhanu Stehay Roman Tadesse, Alex Teferra, Yemi Yetneberk Bitewded Zelalem, the partners will develop educational tools that will be useful for school audiences.
On October 7 and 8 2019, the partners will co-facilitate a training course for some 30 teachers and 7 cartoonists at the AEF. It will make it possible to present the pedagogy of Cartooning for Peace, but also to create synergies between the parties to specify together the pedagogical project. Once trained, the teachers will carry out pedagogical work with their students before welcoming the draftsmen into the classes for 2-hour meeting sessions between October and December 2019.
On October 7, the Alliance Ethio-Française will also welcome the general public for a conference on the role of press cartoons in our democracies, moderated by Emeline Wuilbercq, a correspondent for the newspaper Le Monde in Addis Ababa. Learn more about the conference.
