The Amazigh writer, Noufel Bouzeboudja, wins a prestigious fellowship awarded to candidates whose projects promote participative democracy, minorities protection, debate depolirasation, justice and human rights.
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Noufel therefore integrates a cohort of 30 rising activists, community leaders and young professionals from the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Alfred Landecker Democracy Foundation is based in Berlin. It “exists to defend open and liberal societies and strengthen democratic institutions that safeguard our freedoms. It was founded in 2019 in response to the rising trends of populism, nationalism, Antisemitism, hatred towards minorities and skepticism towards democratic institutions”.
Noufel’s project will be the creation and implementation of an online platform called #PremiereLigne to disseminate stories of Paris banlieue residents of immigrants background.
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The stories, mainly in the form of video blurbs, will depict the central role of frontline workers in Paris banlieue during the COVID-19 pandemic. These stories will draw the historical parallels between these workers and the older community members who were responsible for the reconstruction of France after World War II. Amongst the banlieue population, professions such as cleaners, hospital and elderly home careers, delivery workers, drivers, supermarket employees, maintenance workers and garbage collectors, are over-represented. The same goes for their ancestors who worked on construction sites and factories during France’s post-Second World War “golden era”. During the lockdown, these workers continued to run essential services, often working in risky conditions. “These are the true VIP”, says Noufel.
Ten people will be selected to take part in the elaboration of this platform. They will participate in a series of educational exchanges with experts including historians, sociologists, and community workers. They will also use site visits and cross community exchanges to explore how other communities of France are successfully shaping their own narrative and transmitting memory. In order to ensure quality and teach skills, they will be trained in basic journalism techniques such as interviewing and storytelling, video recording, and editing. The participants will collect the stories targeting the banlieue’s public, French broader public, and the world through social media campaigns.
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This Fellowship is set in partnership with Humanity in Action and Purpose. Humanity in Action which is a transatlantic non-profit organization that educates, inspires, and connects a community of rising leaders and activists committed to pluralism, human rights, and civic engagement, in their own communities and around the world.
Purpose is a platform that builds and supports movements to advance the fight for an open, just, and habitable world. A proud public benefit corporation and certified B Corp, Purpose uses public mobilization and storytelling to help leading organizations, activists, businesses, and philanthropies engaged in this fight. The organization creates campaigning labs and new initiatives that can shift policies and change public narratives when it matters most.
To implement his project Noufel has already established a partnership with “Espace Paris Jeunes Taos Amrouche” and the grassroots association “Digitil Media et Culture”.
