Attraverso 2023

Summer proposals for service, training and sharing in migratory and intercultural contexts

Crossing visible and invisible boundaries and breaking down physical walls and those within for an intense experience of service, training and sharing.

In some of the most significant places for the reality of migration in Europe, we want to contribute to rediscovering the Good even in the midst of pain and violated human rights, touching Life with our own hands, to nurture what drives us to put ourselves at service with the other.

The goal is to build a community of people who welcome each other, caring for each other and the Planet, inhabiting spaces of co-responsibility capable of generating new processes of transformation and promoting encounter in order to build a society in which differences coexist by integrating and enriching each other.

WHERE

In different places and contexts we will always have service, training and sharing, we will support people on the move and seasonal migrant workers, meet witnesses, and experience moments of reflection and exchange. We will follow two strands in particular: in Ventimiglia (IM), Oulx (TO) and Trieste we will talk about Italian and European borders, people on the move and paths through the woods. Instead, in Pontinia (LT), Cuneo and Foggia we will be in contact with farm labor, caporalato and exploitation of migrant workers. Cosenza will be the continuation of an experience that began a year ago and has had a few stops throughout the year, where the themes are interculturality and intertwining; a week especially dedicated to those whose roots are among distant flavors, but an Italian life.

USEFUL INFO

To participate in the camps, we ask you to contribute a donation of €120 (this does not have to be a barrier to participation; write to us if you would like to participate but do not think you can afford the full fee): it includes food, lodging, insurance and internal travel on camp days.

NB: only for the Io Ci Sto Camp, the requested donation is €150 (again, this should not be a barrier to participation).

Instead, each volunteer will have to make his or her own arrangements for travel to the camp site and for departure. One meeting will be arranged before departure and one upon return from the experience. More email info on where and how to donate and logistical issues will follow shortly. We ask that you add the e-mail from [email protected] to your address book.

RECIPIENTS

The proposals are aimed at young people aged 18 to 29. Are you over 29 years old? Write to us at [email protected]!

ORGANIZERS

Conceiving and implementing Attraverso is ASCS – Scalabrinian Agency for Development Cooperation, together with various local, national and European partners including Fondazione Migrantes, Migrantes Cosenza, Caritas Cuneo, Caritas Intemelia, Caritas Latina, Archdiocese of Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo, CVX Europea, ICS Trieste and Linea D’Ombra odv.

Attraverso23 is implemented with the support of the Migrantes Foundation, Carmel Church and the European Union, through the Piedmont Region in the context of the project Mindchangers – Regions and youth for Planet and People.”


THEMESPhysical border, crossings, freedom of movement, rejections.

WHERE? A physical boundary that is felt by those who do not have the right papers in their pockets. This way Grimaldi of Ventimiglia, that way Menton. Italy and France. Along a path that has been traversed by steps of history for dozens and dozens of years. Every day the story continues and there are those who try to cross this border, to reach friends and relatives elsewhere: on foot, by train, by car, across the highway: invisible passages of visible people.

PARTNERS Caritas Intemelia, Diaconia Valdese, WeWorld, Red Cross, St. Augustine Parish and other entities and private citizens

WHAT? Knowledge of the border area and how the migration phenomenon has characterized it for several decades. We will support Caritas Intemelia in their daily service, as well as groups of private citizens working on behalf of migrants and transients. We will go to France along the Trail of Death and the Trail of Paradise, putting ourselves in the shoes of those who walk it daily. We will hear testimonies from the various realities operating on both sides of the border, be overwhelmed by this city and its contradictions, and take time to reflect following dense and intense days.



THEMES Physical border, crossings, Balkan route.

WHERE? Trieste is the overland gateway to Italy from the Balkan route, on the border with Slovenia. It is yet another border crossed in a migration journey that lasts even years, often involving violence and refoulement. People on the move, who bear the tangible marks of the European policy of refoulement upon them, find in Trieste a place of both hostility and care, of transit and expulsion.

PARTNER Jesuits Trieste, Linea d’Ombra ODV, ICS, San Martino al Campo Community

WHAT? We will learn first-hand about the migration dynamics affecting Trieste, working alongside Linea d’ombra, ICS and the San Martino al Campo Community in the daily activities of supporting people on the move as they arrive in Trieste. We will hear from local actors whose daily actions are political witnesses to a radically alternative vision of what the border is. We will travel, for a few kilometers, the stretch of border that people on the move cross before arriving in Italy.

Will you already be in Lisbon for WYD 2023? We are there too! We will be present with an international meeting at the Scalabrini Seminary in Amora (20 km from Lisbon) on August 2 from 2 p.m. until after dinner and a booth at the Vocational Fair.

Whether you would like to register you and your group for the meeting in Amora or are planning to stop by the Vocational Fair, email us at [email protected] and we would be delighted to see/meet/meet you again!



TEMESlabor exploitation, caporalato, interculturalism, agriculture

WHERE? Agro Pontino: a fertile plain covered with greenhouses where most of the vegetables that reach our tables are grown. “Origin: Italy.” The arms that grow radishes and salad greens, however, often come from afar: the workers are mostly Indians of the Sikh religion, a large but quiet community, ideal for widespread exploitation. It is one of the faces of 21st century slavery.

PARTNER Presidium Caritas Latina

WHAT? We will experience an itinerant week exploring significant places to understand the potential and fragility of the Agro Pontino territory. We will then move between Pontinia, Sabaudia, Borgo Hermada, Bella Farnia and many other places. The heart of the proposal will be knowledge, service and sharing in contact with the Sikh community in the Latina area. We will talk about labor exploitation, visit farms, even put ourselves in the shoes of a farmhand at work in the fields. We will listen to stories and testimonies from those who are on the ground every day to fight the scourge of caporalism.



THEMES existential boundary, agriculture, labor exploitation, caporalato

WHERE? In Cuneo, a city in Piedmont that lies at the center of an area that thrives on agriculture and to which hundreds and hundreds of seasonal workers flow each year; an area that, for this reason, has been facing the issue of labor exploitation for years. In this place inhabited by great resources but also strong injustices, the Caritas Presidium of Cuneo offers its help in support of migrant workers who are victims of caporalato.

PARTNER Presidium Caritas Cuneo.

WHAT? We will experience days of immersion in the agricultural territory of Cuneo. Our service will be alongside seasonal workers and in support of those already working in the area. There will be no shortage of training and meeting moments: we will try to learn about the history of this area by delving into various aspects of the phenomenon of caporalato and listening to the testimony of the actors who have been working for years to counter it. We will have the opportunity to meet with the local community, to leave room for moments of dialogue and sharing among volunteers, and to listen to the voices of those who know the reality of the place, to try to become more and more aware citizens, to learn about and counter exploitation, and to grow in justice and integration.

This initiative is part of the Mindchangers project.



TEMI Existential boundary, identity, intertwining, interculture

WHERE? Cosenza, a city rich in intertwining and contamination: behind it a history of languages and cultures that have succeeded, met, clashed and mixed, and a present with new challenges, beauties and contradictions. Lorica, a small village in the vast Sila Park nature reserve with forests and lakes.

PARTNER Migrantes Foundation Cosenza-Bisignano

WHAT? A week to meet young people with different roots, colors and tastes behind them to build a multicultural and multicolored Italy and world. Listening to testimony and getting to know people and realities operating on the ground in and around Cosenza. We will experience various nuances that welcoming can have. In addition to dialogue and listening, they will also go alongside local entities in carrying out the services they perform, ranging from soup kitchens to art projects carried out in shelters, to become fellow travelers for people in greater need. With various moments of reflection and sharing with educators and youth walking this path together, the goal of the week will be to generate change: for the participants, for the people we will meet along the way, change of culture and mindset.



TEMI Physical border, alpine route

WHERE? In Oulx, a small mountain town in the upper Susa Valley, behind Turin, which has found itself to be a key transit hub for hundreds of men, women and children from Africa and the Near East on their way to France: this is where they all stop before attempting to cross the border without being intercepted by border police.
And in Briançon, the first town in France that people on the move encounter just across the border.

PARTNERS Refuge Fraternity Massi, Pastorale Migranti of the Diocese of Susa, Diaconia Valdese, Rainbow for Africa, Refuge Solidaires.

WHAT? We will have a service experience, working alongside the operators and volunteers who run the Oulx shelter and its counterpart across the border. We will take care of the people who stay at these establishments by helping to provide them with clean rooms, a hot meal and the necessities to continue their journey. We will seek to learn about and understand the phenomenon of human mobility along the Alpine route, thanks to encounters with witnesses, trainers and those who work alongside people in transit every day. We will also have the opportunity to set out along the mountain trails and experience important moments of sharing and getting to know each other.
Thanks to the collaboration with the international volunteer project “ATF – At the Frontiers” of the Christian Life Community-European CLC, Through Oulx will be a European-wide camp on a European frontier. Young people from various countries will participate: we will also speak English and French.
Through collaboration with the Fridays for future group in Chieri, the camp will also bring attention to the issue of climate change. We will also open spaces for reflection by interweaving the two phenomena: climate justice and social justice.

This initiative is part of the Mindchangers project.

Can’t attend but still want to support Intercultural Animation activities?

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