ConFine26: weekend of service, training and sharing at the borders of Europe

service camps with migrants

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

A journey that changes the view of the world at the borders where stories of hope, challenges and transformation are woven together. We are ready to set out again for a unique experience, exploring places where the visible or invisible border is not just a line drawn on a map, but a reality experienced and crossed every day.

Once again this year we will be in several Italian and European border locations: Oulx, Como, Trieste and Calais.

Why participate? Let’s move from our centers to the suburbs: spaces where themes of migration and cross-cultural encounters come to life. During ConFine weekends you will have the opportunity to:

  • Put yourself in service alongside those who support people in border areas, listening to their stories and offering your contribution.
  • Train with experts/and solidarity associations to reflect on reception, human mobility, and border management policies.
  • Sharing moments of dialogue and exchange with fellow travelers, migrant people and local realities committed to building bridges instead of walls.

A journey to break down walls and build bridges

Through service, listening and reflection, we can inhabit spaces of co-responsibility and generate new processes of transformation. Together, we promote encounter and work for a society in which differences coexist, complementing and enriching each other.

Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the change, join us!

To participate in the camps, we ask you to contribute a donation of €60 (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.

Instead, one will have to make their own arrangements for the necessary travel to and from the camp site.

The meeting on the first day of each camp will take place in the morning at 10 a.m.: there will be an opportunity to arrive and stay overnight as early as the previous day.

The last day of the camp will end at 3 p.m.

In addition, one online meeting is scheduled 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.

The proposals are aimed at young people aged 18 to 35. Each camp will also have a specific focus for an age group: see the fact sheets of each proposal for details

Devising and implementing Confine26 isASCS – Scalabrinian Agency for Development Cooperation, with a staff of young people from various parts of Italy.

Each proposal is built together with various local, national and European partners, including Parrocchia di Rebbio, Rifugio Fraternità Massi, Diaconia Valdese, ICS Trieste, Linea D’Ombra, Caritas Trieste.

ConFine26 is realized with the support of Chiesa del Carmine di Milano, EU DEAR Programme (Connect for global change), Fondazione CRT

  • WHEN? Feb. 6-8
  • TARGET: intended mainly for young people aged 18 to 25 years old
  • PRECAMPO: Jan. 22
  • POSTCAMPO: March 19
  • 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? In Oulx, we will have a service experience, working with the operators and volunteers who run the shelter on the Italian side. We will meet the people staying in Oulx, listen to their stories, and help provide them with clean rooms, a hot meal and the necessities to continue their journey. We will delve into the phenomenon of human mobility along the Alpine route, thanks to encounters with witnesses, trainers and those who support people in transit on a daily basis. We will set out, along mountain paths to experience firsthand the difficulties of transit. We will hear the story of the Susa Valley, which all ‘of a sudden found itself to be a place of transit for thousands of people. We will reflect on the meaning of borders, European migration choices and the subtle but indispensable balance that holds the reception system in Oulx.

  • WHEN? February 27-March 1
  • TARGET: intended mainly for young people aged 26 to 35 years old
  • PRECAMPO: Feb. 12
  • POSTCAMPO: April 17
  • WHERE? Calais represents the border point between the United Kingdom and France, separated only by the English Channel. For years now Calais has been transformed as a function of the passage of transiting people. Notably famous was the Calais Jungle, a giant informal encampment on the outskirts of the city, which was inhabited from 2006 to 2016, then dismantled. However, there are currently thousands of people in the Calais territory.In recent years, the migration route has intensified: in the span of 2023, 29,437 people were recorded crossing the Channel. Despite the number of crossings (more than 40,000 people had crossed this border in 2022), the bulk of people on the move who plan to head to the UK are stranded on the border beaches of northern France, such as Calais and Dunkirk.Even in the past year, the situation has remained emergent; data from 2024 report that more than 36,000 people attempted to cross
  • WHAT? We will go to experience firsthand the situation experienced by people in transit on the beaches of Calais. In this International Border experience we will have the opportunity to get to know the realities and associations on the ground that daily put themselves at the service of human life. During this Border weekend we will collaborate with Maison Effatà, a home for migrant people run directly by the Scalabrinian missionaries and ASCS.

  • WHEN. March 27 at 10 a.m. (possibility of arriving on the 26th evening) through March 29 at 3 p.m.
    TARGET: This proposal is open to everyone, including those over 35!
  • PRECAMPO: March 18, 9 p.m., online
  • POSTCAMPO: April 29, 9 p.m., online
  • WHERE. Ventimiglia lives on that land border that separates Italy from France, a crossing place for many people in transit from different migration routes, who attempt to reach France hoping to go unnoticed by the gaze of border police.
    This border is the perfect example of how an ID or skin color makes all the difference: luxury cars speed along the highways, crossing the French-Italian border; tourists of all backgrounds travel on trains from one side of the border to the other, to visit what is beautiful about these two countries. Very few steps away from them, men, women, sometimes whole families attempt to cross the Pass of Death, a long and winding mountain path that leads from Grimaldi to Menton, the first French town across the border.
  • 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 the silence of the institutions, and we will do our best to be supportive: we will meet Caritas Intemelia, Diaconia Valdese, Red Cross.
  • Ventimiglia Border 26 is the result of a collaboration between ASCS and Pathways of Life

  • WHEN? April 24-26
  • TARGET: intended mainly for young people aged 26 to 35 years old
  • PRECAMPO: April 14
  • POSTCAMPO: June 9
  • 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 learn first-hand about the migration dynamics affecting Trieste, working alongside the day-to-day 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.

  • WHEN? April 30-May 4
  • TARGET: intended mainly for young people aged 18 to 25 years old
  • PRECAMPO: April 22
  • POSTCAMPO: June 17
  • WHERE? Como-Chiasso, Italian-Swiss border, beaten and crossed not only by Italian border crossers going to work in Switzerland, but also by people on the move trying to reach northern European countries. In recent months, people arriving in Trieste, from the Balkan Route and transiting to Milan and then continuing north. Border not well known but with important passive readmission numbers from Switzerland to Italy.
  • WHAT? We will experience an intense weekend on the border: getting to know, serving and sharing in contact with the migratory reality of the arrival of the Balkan Routes and heading to the countries of northern Europe.

Are you a large group or a smaller group of friends and would like to do activities along the ConFini?
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]

Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the change. Places are limited: register now and join us to build bridges instead of walls!

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