Students and employees run on the catwalk for democracy, openness and tolerance at the peace festival in Ostritz.
On May 21, 2022, around 25 students and staff from both university locations attended the peace festival in Ostritz to walk the catwalk for democracy, openness and tolerance.
Virtually halfway between Zittau and Görlitz, the "values" of our university - open-mindedness, education, research and tolerance - were presented on the "catwalk" by researchers from the LaNDER³ project and students from the "Wardrobe 6.0" project team.
Under the heading "MITEINANDER - Learning, Teaching, Researching, Living", research staff and students from the technical degree programs have come together to show that they are committed to the values embodied by the Peace Festival, both professionally and privately. The LaNDER³ project is working on the use of local textile plants in new products. Among other things, a piece of flax canvas was created together with "lokal textil" - grown and harvested in Leipzig - the fibers opened up in Zittau - spun and woven in Großschönau.
We, the "Wardrobe 6.0" project team, are students on the Social Work degree program at Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. As part of our project studies, we deal with the production and consumption chains of clothing in connection with the topics of sustainability, identity, human rights and environmental protection. In cooperation with "Tierra - Eine Welt e.V.", we staged a "Human" contribution on the catwalk for democracy, cosmopolitanism and tolerance at the Ostritz Peace Festival on May 21, focusing on our individual characteristics and insecurities. The final formation on our 100% human and 100% human T-shirts made it clear that beneath every flaw, every individual story, behind every personal statement and every peculiarity, there are unique people, but people of equal value. Our prize money will be donated to FEMNET e.V., a non-profit women's rights organization that campaigns for economic, social and cultural rights for women worldwide and focuses in particular on supporting women in the global garment industry and fighting for the rights of seamstresses.
We are grateful for the opportunity to have made an active contribution to democracy, cosmopolitanism and tolerance in Ostritz and are excited to see how we can deepen this in the further course of the project, including at the Görlitz street theater festival "ViaThea" or the long night of knowledge.
Photos: Marcel Schröder
