Scholarship Programme for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Students
Education / Human rights
In the face of the rise of anti-European populism, extremism and the distancing from – if not open opposition to – certain democratic values, intolerance and hatred, it is essential to revalidate the commitment to democratic memory as an essential condition for promoting open, inclusive and plural forms of citizenship capable of defusing totalitarian drifts. It is therefore necessary to bring about a generational changeover, so that it falls to the younger generations to lead the process of recovering, preserving and promoting democratic memory and European democratic values.
For this to happen, it is necessary to provide young people with tools that enable them to improve their knowledge of past events and facilitate their participation and involvement in the recovery of a collective democratic memory so that they can achieve a social awareness of the reality they live in.
Therefore, with the aim of strengthening Spain’s commitment to human rights and democratic values in the province of Badajoz, and more specifically to promote learning spaces on the values of democratic memory in the province of Badajoz and generate the conditions that allow a greater understanding of European democratic memory so that they can become agents of change in their community, the Memory Workshops have been held in different centres in the province of Badajoz.
On 8 May 2025, on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Men and Women Victims of Exile, the educational event ‘Exile and memory: lessons from the past for the present’ took place at IES Meléndez Valdés in Villafranca de los Barros, where 21 students from 4th ESO and 1º Bachillerato participated.
The event analysed the historical processes linked to the Spanish exile during the Civil War and Franco’s regime, its impact on Spanish society and the different current realities of forced displacement. The workshop was accompanied by didactic activities that helped to maintain attention and encouraged critical thinking and dialogue in the classroom, such as the creation of a memory mural where students had to reflect their reflections on the subject.
On 9 May 2025, on the occasion of Europe Day, a second integrated workshop entitled ‘Democratic Memory: from local to European’ was held at IES Extremadura in the town of Mérida, where 47 students from 4th ESO and 1º Bachillerato participated.
The focus of the workshop started with the knowledge of what happened in Spain during the Civil War and Franco’s regime, and ended with the shared memories of the different European countries, such as Germany with Nazism, Italy with Fascism, or Portugal with Salazarism. This workshop was also accompanied by activities that allowed the students to learn about the history of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s regime.
