From 11th to 13th of August 2017, a nature- and mountain gathering was organized by GAIA Kosovo and friends, bringing people from various backgrounds together under the peaks of the Sharr mountains, on the joint exploration of connection with the mountain, each other and themselves, exploring different topics that gather around the topics of Freedom, Justice and Equality in both social and ecological sense.

The 12th of August was dedicated to the topic of discrimination and violence, exploring different examples from all places and times through different activities. The Exhibition about the “Balkan Route” was the core part of the day’s activities, linking the history of Sharr mountain- a trans-border region with a history of migration throughout the past centuries itself to the ongoing humanitarian crisis on the Balkans and beyond. The exhibition connected visual impressions from the Route (Photos, Drawings) with written testimonies that were collected during the RtC Study Field Trip.

You can find more information about the exhibition and the festival itself here.

The event was organized in order to present the situation and impressions of volunteers that were travelling along the Balkan route thanks to this project – having a photo exhibition, a film screening and story sharing. It was extremely important to share these experiences with other people in order to gather the impressions from the 2-week-trip once again in one place, but also to let others know what is currently happening with people seeking refuge along the Balkans.

The ”Putevi koji se prepliću // Routes that intertwine”  event took place in the Youth center CK13. It gathered activists from other organizations but as well some people that were not involved in the topic before, but were interested to hear and  see more about the ”A Route to Connect” project.

The Photo exhibition consisted of photos throughout all stages of the journey, connected all together with a thread, so it had a visual representation of a consistent flow between the activities along the route, with descriptions under every photograph.

Along the photos from the journey, the participants also had the chance to see photographs of talented Aboozar Soltani from Iran, that participated in many photography contests because of his amazing talent and sense of details. He was at the time based in one of the reception centers in Serbia (Šid area).

Visitors of the event had the chance to see and take the Universal Citizen booklets that were shared to people along the route. The booklet provided basic information mostly about first aid conditions, on 3 languages – English, Farsi and Arabic.

Additionally, the donation box for independent volunteer groups that operate in North of Serbia was set up. In exchange for donation, visitors could get a bag with quotes from stories written by volunteers that attended the journey. Also the website address was on the bags for the visibility of the project.

Some parts of the movie from the journey, that was still in the editing phase, was shown to visitors as a visual material of all the things seen and experienced along the Balkan route, after saying a few words about the project and it’s development.

SCI Switzerland organized this dance and theatre week for kids from the asylum seeker center in Reconvilier together with children living in the village. The aim of this integrative project was to give the possibility to kids from refugee centers to have a rich exchange of experiences with local kids and to improve their local language skills in a creative context. This was accomplished with a mix of dance and theatre playing activities. At the end of the second week, they present their work. About 25 to 30 kids between 6 and 13 years old participated in the project.

The connection between ”A Route to Connect” and this workcamp was established by sharing the stories from the project through the print magazine from SCI Switzerland by the volunteers in this follow up project. By organizing this project SCI Switzerland confirmed it’s commitment to working with refugees while pointing out the importance of creating opportunities of integration and connection with the local population – especially through theatre and games. It’s efficiency was also apparent in ”A Route to Connect” project, where clowning performances in refugee camps were essential, when it comes to creating connections with people in the camps and within the local community.

You can check out the magazine here!

This event consisted of different activities. A cooking session enabled people from different backgrounds to meet and share their own cooking skills and ideas, before having a lunch open to everyone. A photo exhibition composed of the materials produced during the study trip was displayed, along with a second one created by several migrant women. A street action was also held to distribute short anti-prejudice guides to the passers-by. Eventually, the screening of a documentary about the situation of refugees in Europe today was proposed.

The event was held in the center of Porto, during all day through the following 4 different activities:

1. Tourist itinerary “Moorish/Arabic heritage” – Tour around Porto finding the “Moorish/Arabic heritage” visiting very known museums from Porto with the moorish marks (09:30 – 12:30)
During lunch time a conversation about the experiences till now in the Route to Connect project was held with the participants (12:30 – 14:00)

2. Arabic Calligraphy Workshop in the House of Associations in Porto (14 – 15)

3. Human library with Sirian girls and refugees figuring as the books and sharing their experience with the people present in the event. Also Yousra, a participant from the study trip shared her experience from the journey with the visitors, and it was crucial when it came to understanding the context of the event. (15:30-18:30)

4. Intercultural Dinner (music + food) with the support of EAPN, Welcome Refugees and PAR (Refugees Plataform). People from all over the world took part and shared food cooked from people with different cultures (18:30-23:00)

Creation of a ‘Wish Tree’ in a workshop together with locals and people seeking asylum. The dreams and wishes of individuals have then been hung on the tree, and the tree has been moved to a public library. In the library, people may read the dreams of others and add their own ones. Hopefully this project would demonstrate how in the end we all hope and dream about similar things. The wish tree has been built in a workshop during the annual volunteer weekend of KVT Finland.