Author: CaBuReRa

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.

The Daedalus International Seminar Tackling Youth Unemployment in Palestine took place in Ramallah, Palestine on 26^th and 27^th May 2015. Two days devoted to discuss and analyse issues elated to the Palestinian work market, with a special focus on the situation of the youngest employees.

A great number of people joined the seminar. Also CaBuReRa young participants in Palestine were actively involved in it, as they presented the CaBuReRa platform on 27^th May. Partner of both projects is the Palestinian organization Juhoud for Community&Rural Development.

These two projects shared almost the same goals. Daedalus, like CaBuReRa, is an ENPI CBC MED project aimed to help young people living in the Mediterranean Sea basin find a job, by enhancing their career and business opportunities.

The Daedalus portal allows young people, entrepreneurs, ICT companies, online business, regional and local employment associations to enter a cross-border platform where matching labour market demand and supply and meeting a valuable pool of young people and professionals across the Mediterranean area. The platform is a useful tool as it integrates information sharing, the dissemination of business content and career advising methodologies through a comprehensive and multi-media plan.

Since CaBuReRa platform collects information about career and mobility opportunities as well as news on call and European funding related to the Euro-Mediterranean area, a synergy with Daedalus is warmly encouraged in order to empower the features of both platforms.

Under the framework of CaBuReRa project, co-financed by the European Union under the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme,  Planning and Development Agency organized the Relay Race, on 28^th, 29^th, 30^th of April 2015 in Baalbeck, Lebanon. This activity saw the participation of 3 volunteers from the TG1 group – made up of Youth Workers aged 25-35 – as well as of 6 volunteers of TG2 group which includes not yet employed young people interested in international cooperation. During these three days, the TG1 volunteers shared their competences with the TG2 members, introducing them to the aims of the CaBuReRa Project. What is important to point out is that this event gave to TG1 members the opportunity to prove themselves as trainers, thus further foster the competences previously acquired.

What makes this experience really valuable is that TG2 volunteers learned from their peers, listening to them as well as asking for some useful advice.

The Italian RelayRace event, the real heart of the CaBuReRa project, was held in CESIE offices between March 9^th and 13^th 2015. It consists in an exchange of abilities and knowledge that puts into practice the keywords of  this project: Cooperation, International Exchanges, Promotion.

Some useful information to learn about CaBuReRa

CaBuReRa is an ENPI CBC MED project co-funded by the European Union. Its aim is to encourage cooperation among the Euro-Mediterranean Countries, to face in a constructive manner the crisis of youth employment.

CaBuReRa also encourages its young participants in acquiring new skills, especially in the field of project management and international cooperation, by involving 90 under-35 participants in training activities and volunteering in the Partner Countries of the project (Italy, Portugal, Greece, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine). The young people involved in the CaBuReRa project are divided in two Target Groups, called TG1 and TG2:

• TG1 includes 30 Youth Workers, young graduates who have already worked in an NGO or have experience of voluntary work;
• TG2 includes 60 Young Unemployed, people aged between 25 and 35, who are not yet employed and willing to make an international experience.

Usually, TG1 participants are involved in 4-month mobility projects, organised in one of the 6 Partner Countries, whilst TG2 group is to attend a 3-month training course in one of the Partner Countries, followed by a 3-month internship in their home country.

RelayRace Palermo, when cooperation comes true

Relay Race is the core of this intense activity of knowledge exchange and enhancement of new skills. It is a 3-days event during which the TG1 group, just come back from the mobility experience, “relay” to the members of the TG2 group who is going to leave. This is an essential step which represents the soul of the CaBuReRa project and gives a tangigle proof of its success.

15 people aged between 25 and 30 years took part in the Relay Race held in Palermo last March. Italian members of the TG1 group just come back from their mobility experience in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine met the young members of the TG2 group, who were leaving for the same destinations, giving them some useful advise based on their experience.

But the Relay Race is much more than a training course: it represents an opportunity of peer evaluation, where people can share the skills they have acquired with other people involved in the CaBuReRa project. In Palermo,TG2 members had the opportunity of talking about their expectations about the project: they received some useful advice from the TG1 members, in a valuable process of cooperation and, above all, communication. Young participants talked about their feelings, but also explained the reasons that pushed them to join the project. They said that CaBuReRa is not just a way to enrich their CVs, but it also represents a way to challenge themselves by facing different cultures and doing a real experience of cooperation.

Promoting the growth of a conscious citizenship and improving intercultural dialogue by circulating good practices to redcue youth unemployment: watching the video of the Relay Race held in Palermo, you will see that these are not just good intentions, but a concrete, fruitful reality.