Gustavo Nazar

"We’re going to change the world"

- Segregation is devastating. It eats away at children, at openness, and at people's faith in the future. We have to reverse that trend, otherwise children will grow up to see each other as enemies. I think it's possible to change the world. The day I don’t think so, I wouldn’t be able to look a child in the eye. As a citizen, parent, and public official, I do not intend to wait on the sidelines and see what happens. Everyone must realize that we all have a role to play in human rights.

- Whenever we talk about human rights, there’s a change in people's consciousness. We need new terminology to formulate and tools to help us think with. We need to listen to the children's perspectives and their experiences in order to see what this open society should look like in the future. Children should know that they have rights. That’s the school's mission and task.

- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is now law in Sweden and I dream of a society that will begin to see children and young people as people and citizens. Today, we miss out on their knowledge and experience. On the day we humanize children, we will create an even more cohesive and long-term sustainable society.

- The school has a mission to educate democratic citizens and plays a crucial role in how society will develop, with people’s minds closed or open up. The school helps formulate the future. If it does not take place in a school for everyone, it will not take place elsewhere.

- It’s most rewarding when school staff and students see themselves as a team. That’s when we’ve created common understanding, common feelings, thoughts, and visions. When adults and children find common formulations about society, then something incredibly beautiful happens in the room. That’s when I feel delighted.

- "Show Racism The Red Card" is a project that with, among others, MFF, the City of Malmö, MKB, and TIF, brings together thousands of students and adults in conferences, in classrooms, and on football fields. When 200 children from 30 different schools and parts of Malmö go down to the inner floor of Malmö Stadium and hold up cards with the text "Show Racism The Red Card” on them and I see how they hold themselves and the look in their eyes, then I see a vision of the open city.

- It always starts small. The wording is already clear, scriptures and sacred texts are there, the global goals are there. Great thinkers and philosophers have interpreted the world for us, now is the time for us to change it. We usually call Malmö the city of love, but that love and that heart also needs to be given nourishment, encouragement, and the right conditions. It's like in any relationship.