Since its creation in 2007, the Fundació Catalunya Voluntària has considered the Mediterranean as its main area of action, together with Europe, and therefore dedicates its efforts to creating new opportunities for young people to participate in volunteering, training and exchange programs in the countries of the south and east of the Mediterranean, despite the difficulties that exist, whether due to lack of information and bureaucratic obstacles or due to the barbarity and destruction that forces millions of people to abandon their homes under the bombs, both in Palestine and Lebanon, creating absolute chaos throughout the region, a situation which affects us greatly and we cannot ignore.
Despite the impossibility of the participation of the Lebanese partner, from 13 to 17 October we were able to meet in Vilanova I la Geltrú (Barcelona) a group of 19 people, representatives of 11 organizations from 9 countries, on the occasion of the Partnership-building activity ‘European Solidarity Corps- Volunteering for Peace’, coordinated by the FCV thanks to the support of the Erasmus + program of the European Commission and whose main objective was to incorporate the concept of “Volunteering for peace”, the culture of peace and peace education in the set of volunteering activities they carry out, while perceiving volunteering as a means for the promotion and construction of peace, which seems especially necessary to us in the current context, marked by the absolute triumph of the culture of war.
The meeting served as the first opportunity to meet with organisations from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with a long history of hosting youth mobility programmes, to meet with organisations with which the FCV has been collaborating sporadically for over a decade, from Tunisia, Morocco, Italy and Portugal, as well as to meet with organisations with which the FCV collaborates in actions of the ‘European Solidarity Corps’ programme, from Poland and Turkey and in other long-term initiatives, as is the case of the German partner organisation.
All participating organisations were selected for their commitment to creating new opportunities for young people from their country/region to experience volunteering in neighbouring countries and regions, aware of what this means as an opportunity to develop new skills and learn about other cultures.
During the week we held workshops, games, presentations and activities to learn new socio-educational practices and design future joint actions, dedicating a day to visiting Barcelona, where we organised an information session on ESC to inform about the ESC activities being carried out by our partners in Tunisia and Morocco.
The meeting, despite its brevity, met the planned objectives and encouraged us to redouble our efforts to continue collaborating with organisations from neighbouring Mediterranean countries.
For more information on the activity and its results, you can send an email to projectes@catalunyavoluntaria.cat
For more information on how to participate in a CES in a Mediterranean country, you can send an email to voluntariat@catalunyavoluntaria.cat
