The dots

• Small stickers in different colours.

Ensure there is enough space in the training room for participants to walk around freely. Ask participants to move tables and chairs if necessary.

Explain that the group is going to play a short and simple game.

• Ask everyone in the group to close their eyes.
• Tell participants that they may not express themselves verbally from the time they close their eyes and until you say they may start speaking again.
• Tell the group you will walk around the room and place a sticker on each participant’s forehead.
• Depending on the group’s size, choose one to three people who each get a sticker in a colour that no one else in the room has. The remaining people in the room should receive the same colour as one to four other people. Up to five persons may have the same colour and you can vary the size of the colour groups – for example, two green, four red, five blue etc.

TIP! Be mindful when selecting which participants will receive a sticker in a colour no-one else has. Avoid choosing those from a minority background or shy participants who may feel deeply uncomfortable being singled out.

If a participant has done this exercise before, assign them another role such as helping you to distribute stickers. Their previous experience may change the dynamic of the exercise. Invite them to share their reflections as an observer after the other participants have expressed their feelings.

Once you have given every participant a sticker, tell the participants to open their eyes and ask them to form groups without talking. This is the only instruction to give participants. (Participants may help each other to find their group, but they are not allowed to speak.)

Once most people have found their group, only the ‘chosen ones’ (with different coloured dots) are left still looking for their group. As soon as these participants understand that they don’t belong to a group, say STOP.

Tell the participants they may speak again. Let everyone stay in his or her group. Ask:

• How did it feel to be part of a group?
• How did it feel to not belong to a group?

Point out that the only instruction was to form groups without talking – it was never said that it was not allowed to let anyone join the group! Ask:

• Did it occur to anyone to invite the “different” persons into their group?
• Or did anyone feel like breaking out of their own group and forming a new one with a person that was “different”?
• Does anyone recognize these feelings from real-life experiences of being part of or outside a group?

Invite participants to share any reflections about what this exercise teaches us about how society as a whole tends to treat the ‘other’ or add your own reflection.

Conclude the discussion by saying that the way in which the ‘other’ is treated in society can also negatively affect the enjoyment of the right to FORB for different groups. Explain that for the rest of this session, the group is going to look more closely at the right to FORB for all.