INCLUSION AND MIGRATION

On 27 July 2021, an international group of young adults from France, Italy, Hungary and Poland, as well as Berliners with and without refugee experience, will gather at the Upsala leisure center in Berlin to live, work and exchange ideas together for a period two weeks.

This work camp marks the start of the INVOLVE work camps in summer 2021. The aim of the EU project is to carry out activities in the field of migrant inclusion in Italy, France and Germany. In this context, in the summer of 2021, two work camps will be held in each country that provide for the exchange of volunteers. ICJA as a German partner collaborates with two neighborhood centers in the Berlin district of Pankow to carry out labor camps: from 27 July to 7 August in the Upsala leisure center and from 8 to 21 August in the KulturMarktHalle.

Participants enter into an exchange with each other and meet through community civic engagement, because only through direct contact can our societies become cohesive and inclusive – in Germany, the EU and the world. Specifically, the group will paint the facade of the leisure center and carry out works in the garden, participate in a theater workshop and visit places and events of historical and cultural interest in Berlin. Sustainability and ecology are particularly important aspects of the INVOLVE field of work. For example, attendees are expected to receive important information on permaculture and urban gardening as part of a Peace of Land conference and then put what they have learned to use.

Thus the Berlin coordinator for the INVOLVE project, Tabea Büge (ICJA) describes the project: “INVOLVE is a project that aims to create encounters between people who otherwise do not have many points of contact, that is, between the so-called majority society and people with a refugee experience who have not recently lived in Berlin. In a big city like Berlin, it is often not that easy to get close. Everyone is involved in their daily life. INVOLVE helps people from different ‘bubbles’ to meet and make a difference for their environment or their community ”.