ConFine 2023 | ASCS - Agenzia Scalabriniana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo

ConFine23

Weekend of service, training and sharing at the borders of Europe

After the powerful experience of ConFine22, we want to return to these significant places for the migratory reality of Italy to help rediscover 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.

Through the individual proposals we will touch upon the realities of Europe’s visible and invisible borders-Oulx, Trieste and Ventimiglia. Through service and sharing, we will support people on the move, meet witnesses, and experience moments of reflection and exchange.

Designing and implementing these proposals isASCS – Scalabrinian Agency for Development Cooperation, together with various local partners.

The proposals are aimed at young people aged 18 to 29.

Participation fees help us to support participants’ room and board expenses, but should not be a barrier to participation for anyone!

OULX BOUNDARY

WHEN? From 5/01 evening to 8/01 late afternoon
WHERE. Oulx, a small mountain town in the upper Susa Valley behind Turin, has found itself to be a key transit hub for hundreds of men, women and children from Africa and the Near East heading for France: they all stop here before attempting to cross the border without being intercepted by border police.
WHAT? We will experience three intense days of knowledge, service and sharing about the migration reality of Oulx. We will meet and be supportive of those who work alongside people in transit every day: Fraternità Massi Refuge, Pastorale Migranti of the Diocese of Susa, Diaconia Valdese, Rainbow for Africa.
WHO? Young people from 18 to 29 years old
PARTICIPATION FEE: 50 €

VENTIMIGLIA BORDER

WHEN? From 17/03 evening to 19/03 late afternoon
WHERE. A border runs invisibly between the sea and the mountains: on this side Ventimiglia, on the other side Menton. Italy and France. Every day there are those who try to cross this border, to reach friends and relatives elsewhere, but they do not have the right papers in their pockets and the French border guard is always ready to turn them back. So every night in Ventimiglia more than a hundred are sleeping camped under the viaducts of the highway.
WHAT? We will touch the border in all its forms: faces, stories, old rusty barriers, broken shoes and signs of hope. We will meet those in Ventimiglia who continue to engage alongside people on the move in the face of institutional silence, and we will do our best to be supportive: we will meet Caritas Intemelia, Diaconia Valdese, Bar Hobbit, Red Cross.
PARTICIPATION FEE: 50€

TRIESTE BORDER

WHEN? 28/04 evening to 1/05 late afternoon
WHERE. Trieste, gateway to Europe, terminus of the Balkan Route: every day through this city dozens of people enter Italy after walking for weeks through the woods of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, after months of travel that brought them here from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and many other Near Eastern countries.
WHAT? We will experience an intense weekend on the border: knowledge, service and sharing in contact with the migratory reality of the arrival of the Balkan Route. In Trieste we will meet faces and feet, listen to testimonies and be supportive of those who engage there every day: Shadowline, Italian Solidarity Consortium, Strada SiCura and Caritas.
PARTICIPATION FEE: 50€

Are you a large group or a smaller group of friends and would like to do activities along the ConFines?
Unfortunately, places for our weekends are limited, but don’t despair: email us and we will help you make your own arrangements to build Bridges in these frontier territories!
+info: [email protected]