Discrimination in diverse forms is prevalent in our daily lives. Interpretation and experience of the discrimination differ according to the individual’s group: ethnicity, age, geographical location and gender. What if ambassadors representing such factors collaborated to simply spread acknowledgment of the issue? This would increase the chances of everyone learning how to accept the variance that exists between individuals. The International Discrimination Awareness Project (IDAP) aims to raise awareness of the problem of “discrimination” around the world by giving everyone a voice. Ambassadors from 7 different countries have gathered to investigate the type of discrimination pervasive in their respective countries.

How did the journey begin? It started by gathering members from diverse backgrounds. Hyojin Chae (Founder of IDAP) first attempted to reach out to other schools by researching International School email accounts on the internet. Not surprisingly, none of the schools responded. For the second attempt, Hyojin installed Facebook and sent a group request to international schools. She uploaded the invitation posts, and again, nobody responded. For the final method, Hyojin decided to ask her school teachers for connections with other schools. As Hyojin was aware that she needed to ask many teachers to gather members from diverse countries, she asked her friend Eunbin Seo (Executive Director of IDAP) if she was also passionate about the topic of discrimination. The two became a team, contacted a total of 55 teachers individually and, thankfully, 40 teachers responded with genuine interest. As a result, 23 high school students representing Canada, Turkey, India, the Philippines, China, Vietnam and South Korea gathered. IDAP was initiated by students' authentic interest in International relations -- communicating perspectives from different parts of the world to truly understand the discrimination and take actions to prevent further issues.

IDAP was launched in February, 2021 and is predicted to be a long-term project. For the first 2021 official global project, the student ambassadors will research their discrimination topic of choice, formulate a project plan to address the issue and measure the level of awareness raised after their project. As the final product, members will publish a book with the processes described. Any profits gained during the process will be donated. IDAP’s journey is recorded in the media platforms of Instagram(@idap_organization) and Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC80UDiTdJqC76kZORZ2jfNg).

The youths must take part in efforts to reduce the institutionalized rejection of difference.

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