Having survived the Holocaust, Ernie Friedlander is well placed to understand the hardships refugees face and he feels passionately about promoting tolerance in Australia through Harmony Day.

"I realised at a very young age there's good and bad and most people are decent human beings," says Friedlander, president of the Moving Forward Together Association.

Harmony Day is in March and this year, 257 schools in NSW took part in a poster and songwriting competition started by Friedlander in 2005.

"I wanted to overcome prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping and in the process, plant the seed into the minds of young people to identify and realise not to be judgmental of people, rather to consider them on their merit," he says.

This year's theme was ''making our world a better place'' and 6370 students created songs and posters on the theme.

Awards were presented at NSW Parliament House in June.

"In the work the students are creating, their expression resonates across the school because when we have prize giving, most of the kids … bring friends and family," Friedlander says.

"Each student who has created an artwork gets a certificate of participation posted to school; everyone is basically a winner."

The poster and songwriting project is largely funded by individuals. The posters from 40 winners and runners-up are displayed in places such as the University of Western Sydney.

"We would like to encourage others to come aboard and work with us further in this concept, which is basically promoting respect for diversity. I think being positive can make a difference, probably in a small way but a lot more can be done," Friedlander says.