Month: June 2015

The first day of the TG2 Mid-Term Mobility Meeting in Jordan has just ended in a very good mood and sound.

The different groups have closed the intensive activity-day with a song expressing their willing to share their mobility experience and to have fun all together.

Countries’ presentations, laughing, peer to peer activities and reflection on skills were the main elements of the sessions.

The TG2s were so excited and the good feelings of the day allowed all of them to analyse their experiences and the first cultural difficulties faced during their mobility. The trainers as well facilitated the analysis of the learning mobility skills and the reflection on how to exploit them for employment.

The following days will give opportunity to further evaluate the first part of the mobility period and to have a look into the future: refining the expectations and learning goals for the second part of the mobility and for the local internship.

Stay tuned!

The Family and Childcare Centre KMOP, the Greek partner of CaBuReRa project, organised in Athens, on the 18^th of June 2015, the 3^rd international seminar, which was a core activity of the project titled ValidVol: Validation of Key Competences in Voluntary Service Organisations.

The ValidVol Project has been funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme under the Grundtvig sub-programme. It involves partners from the United Kingdom, Austria, Greece, Spain and Italy and is aimed to equip volunteers who are aged over 50 with the skills and competences to improve their employability prospects; this is achieved by recognising and accrediting the learning and skills that individual volunteers gain through their work in the voluntary sector.

Even though the project focuses on mature volunteers, the international seminar was a successful event which was attended by many young volunteers. KMOP took the chance to present them the CaBuReRa project, giving special emphasis on the voluntary character of the mobility activities and on the important working experience gained by the young participants from all involved countries.

Took place in Palermo, Italy, on 17^th June 2015 the Synergies Capitalization Event organised by CaBuReRa, NETKITE and STS MED projects (coordinated respectively by CESIE and Consorzio Arca). The event was part of a wider capitalization event aimed to highlight and enforce the links between business ideas and EU funding opportunities.

The aim of the event was to help young entrepreneurs develop their business idea and find funding opportunities for making it real. In this regard the CaBuReRa young participants had the chance to know more about entrepreneurship and to support the young entrepreneurs of NETKITE to improve their knowledge about funding programmes.

So new synergies have been created between the entrepreneurial ideas of NETKITE participants and the EU funding opportunities proposed by the 58 young participants currently involved in CaBuReRa.

These two projects shared almost the same goals: both are ENPI CBC MED projects aimed to help young people living in the Mediterranean Sea basin find job opportunities by enhancing their career and business opportunities. Moreover both projects have a Platform, a tool which is very useful in order to share information, to disseminate business content and mobility and jobs opportunities, as well as funding programmes in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

Took place in Palermo from 11^th to 14^th June 2015 the Mediterraneo Antirazzista, an event that brings together sport, art and culture, organised for the first time in 2008. Aim of this event is to promote intercultural dialogue and interaction between different cultures, by organising leisure activities addressed to people from different ages, and giving them an occasion to meet each other and share their experiences. This year also TG2 participants got involved in the CaBuReRa project took part in the Mediterraneo Antirazzista, and their enthusiasm in sport competitions has been really great.

It is usually claimed that diversity among people is a value, but sometimes in our cities we have to face critical situations that seem to deny this statement. Different cultures and lifestyles are often considered a threat to society and “the stranger” is seen as an enemy almost everywhere. Social exclusion and discrimination do not concern just migrants escaping from ethnic, economic or religious conflicts, but also those Italians who live in suburbs, where geographic marginality usually means social and economic exclusion.

CaBuReRa supports the Mediterraneo Antirazzista project and took actively part in it. Both projects are indeed aimed to promote an intercultural approach in our society as well as break some mental barriers like racism and social disadvantage through sport and cultural activities, seen as means of cohesion and socialisation. Only a strong network of relationships and human experiences can give people the opportunity to go beyond their prejudices and living peacefully with the others.

In the framework of the three months mobility within CaBuReRa project, Jordan participants in Portugal Sarah Qabbani and Nardeen Alsunna have been collaborating with CRIA, the Division of Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer in University of Algarve.

During the last two months they have been cooperating with CRIA partners, with non-profit and non-governmental organizations, especially those who mainly work in tourism, cultural promotion, Mediterranean diet, technology transfer, intellectual property, entrepreneurship and renewable energy.

The two participants were also introduced to two successful entrepreneurs who, after many years of hard work, have succeeded in transforming their ideas into businesses, with the help of CRIA.

Sarah and Nardeen got the chance to visit the location of two big and successful businesses: Necton and Sparos, that is a spin-off company of the Centre of Marine Sciences of Algarve (CCMAR) / University of Algarve, devoted to innovate in the development of new products and processes for fish feeding and nutrition.

These companies have introduced CaBuReRa participants to their work as well as to their history, showing them the value of their job.

Hussein and Batoul belong to the group of 9 boys and girls coming from Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine who have just started their experience in CaBuReRa. They arrived in Palermo few weeks ago and they have immediately felt home. Hussein and Batoul are both members of TG2, the CaBuReRa Target Group made up of young unemployed people for whom CaBuReRa represents a valuable opportunity of human and professional development. The aim of this project is to help these people acquire complex skills in project management and international cooperation, a way to face youth unemployment in the Euro-Mediterranean area. Young people who have just arrived in Palermo are all graduates or near-graduates: they have decided to join the CaBuReRa project basically in order to make an international experience. But for them, CaBuReRa is more than this, as shown by Houssein and Batoul’s words.

Hussein and the importance of communication

Hussein is 26 years old and he comes from Lebanon. He is a student of IT and Computer Sciences at the University of Beirut, and he says that he decided to join the CaBuReRa project because he wished to improve his IT skills. But when he arrived at CESIE’s office, in Palermo, he found much more than this, and his enthusiasm is visible: he is learning a new language – Italian – and day by day he can appreciate a culture that he acknowledges as different but, at the same time, very close to his own. «Living abroad is a big challenge», he says, «but this experience is teaching me a lot: for example I start to know and appreciate new countries and their cultures, and I have also learned how to communicate with them. I like it so much!». In Lebanon, Hussein had already worked as a volunteer for Action Aid and Unicef: this previous experience, he says, allows him to further appreciate the work he is doing in Palermo. Indeed, Hussein and the other people involved in CaBuReRa are currently working as volunteers in some children centres which are located in town centre of Palermo; these centres are named Ubuntu, Santa Chiara and La Casa di tutte le genti. According to Hussein, what makes CaBuReRa a really valuable experience is the Relay Race, a core event of the project. During the Relay Race, the two target groups involved in the project – the Young Unemployed of TG2 ready to depart and the Youth Workers of TG1 coming back from one of the Partner Countries – meet with each other to discuss about their mobility experience, in a moment of peer-to-peer training aiming to promote active citizenship as well as intercultural dialogue. Everything is based on communication, and this is the feature of the project that Hussein likes the most.

«A place where I feel like home». The story of Batoul

Batoul, as Hussein, is Lebanese. She is 23 years old, and has a degree in Marketing and a strong will to make new experiences. In her words, CaBuReRa is a sort of springboard, the watchword opening labour market’s doors. «If you want to find a job, in Lebanon as in other parts of the world, a work experience abroad is an added value», she claims. For a person like her – who loves travelling, meeting new friends and learning foreign languages – CaBuReRa represents the opportunity for putting herself to the test and try to reach her own independence, both in personal and economic terms. What Batoul likes the most about her work in Palermo is the possibility to help children. The child centre she volunteers in reminds her about the one she attended as a child in Lebanon. According to her, the work that she does every day is a way to give back what she has received during her life. Putting in practice the highest and deep sense of the word communication: giving other people something important and everlasting. Batoul and Hussein are both highly satisfied with their experience in CaBuReRa. They say: «In Palermo we feel like home», a sentence that express much more than its instant meaning. And not just because Mediterranean cities are quite similar to each other, but rather because, in CESIE, Batoul and Hussein found a friendly environment, that allows them to acquire new skills and to give them back to those coming after them, in an long-lasting circle of communication.