During this workshop, included into Colectic’s training sessions, the trainer presented to the participants the various options that they have to continue studying, learning and participating in the European Union. This European perspective was highly valuated by the participants, who also had the opportunity to check several websites with relevant information for them, and their families. The mobility opportunities within Europe made them think about a better future for their children, as far as they will be able to learn about new cultures, new languages, etc.

Colectic is a specialist cooperative that works in digital inclusion, and having the opportunity to facilitate the inclusion of WEMIN participants in this Digital Week has been a big and amazing challenge.

We bet on a totally digital Wemin!

Under the motto “from global to local governance of migration:  The role of local authorities and civil society in managing migration and ensuring safe and regular pathways to the EU” the Migration Forum gathered around 250 participants, including more than 120 civil society organizations from across the European Union. The background paper can be read here. 

Roses, giants and boats

Our goal is to approach the customs, traditions and functioning of the society of which they are new members.

During the months of April and May we have carried out different cultural visits with the Wemin’s students. Do you want to know what we have done?

We have participated in the Sant Jordi celebration, and we have better known the origin of this Catalan festival, dedicated to books and roses.

We have visited the Casa de los Entremesos, a space that show different expressions of popular and traditional culture in collaboration with different entities and associations of Catalonia. One of the things that impressed us most were the old giants of the Plaça Nova, since they are about 3 meters high.

The set of neighbors and social entities join forces to celebrate this cultural event every year, and the multicultural composition of the neighborhood is visible. The program is full of events and, of course, Wemin wanted to be present.

Every women can come and join us at the Raval’s library to ”Coser y contar” [sew and tell stories] A storyteller, Susagna Navó, will lead the workshop which will consist on sewing small pieces of sew small crafts (toys, dolls, purses, scarves …) that will later be exhibited during the Raval Cultural Festival that will take place in November in Barcelona. During the workshop, Susagna will explain stories and legends, and will invite the participants to do the same. Some of these stories will be recorded and the recordings will be displayed during the Raval Cultural Festival and will be displayed in the digital scratch book.

Some of the women may prefer to join us in a textile activism workshop. Francesca Poggi will be in charge of this. Through the transfer of techniques, mainly embroidery and textile design, the we will lead the creation of individual scarves of common support and a canvas of collective creation, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of  Gender Violence. The pieces will be exhibited during the week of the 25^th November in the antic building of art-school of Barcelona (which now is not the Art School anymore, but a hostel of entities where Colectic has its premises) By doing so, we will reach young local women and young migrant women.

She was a teacher in a kinder-garden and in a primary school, and she has participated in “Coser y Contar” workshop, realised in Coletic.

“ I never do stitching. With my hands I’ve done a little wallet and a keychain, and meantime we, the participants, were telling each other stories -about our family life-, and I felt them as a friends”, explains Calderón. While she keep on stitching, she explains that “ At Venezuela I teached in my home, at ‘la escuelita’, as my students name it”.

Without a doubt, what has been most difficult for us is to reach the target group of this action. We have made a lot of dissemination, taking into account that Colectic is not a local reference entity when it comes to working with women (yes, in terms of working with migrated people, but our experience supports us mainly in a male environment)

Women who have participated in the actions carried out by Colectic are not used to staying in the training classroom for many hours, which has led us to have to plan very well the training actions and give them a lot of dynamism. In addition, the reconciliation of the actions with the personal needs of the participants has proved extremely difficult: the need to give due care and attention to the children, the reconciliation with school schedules and other family obligations have had a full impact on the project.