Sharing Knowledge on Refugees Social Inclusion through Artisanship and Culture 0 Reply

According to the UNHCR, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached 59.5 million at the end of 2014, the highest level since World War II with a 40% increase taking place since 2011. More than a million forcibly displaced people, migrants and refugees, crossed into Europe in 2015, sparking a crisis as countries struggled to cope with the influx, and creating division in the EU over how best to deal with resettling people. Ensuring their integration and full participation in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live is a right that needs to be ensured if we wish to guarantee their social inclusion and the observance of their human rights.

In several contexts, arts and culture, more specifically traditional artisanship have been used as vehicle for displaced people social inclusion as making things by hand using centuries-old techniques and traditional knowhow might firstly, promote their empowerment and integration through employment opportunities and self-confidence increase; secondly, contribute to the preservation of intangible cultural heritage in need of safeguarding because of forced migrations and conflicts.

In the framework of the Global Exchange of Crafts Makers, Dialogue Café Association is organising this session with the aim of sharing knowledge and promoting mutual learning on how artisanship can be used to promote displaced people social inclusion and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. With this purpose concrete initiatives being implemented will share their experiences and serve as inspiration for other organisations working in those fields.

The main goal of the cycle Global Exchange of Crafts Makers is to promote exchanges and dialogue between different crafts makers around the world with the aim, in one hand, of identifying the challenges and opportunities of this promising creative sector in future economies, in the other hand, promoting a dialogue and transmission of know-how between traditional and innovative artisans, between senior and young generations.

The session will take place next 25 May from 15h to 17h London time.

PROGRAMME[1]

Moderator: Dalia Sendra, Dialogue Café Association

Artisanship: empowering people, preserving know-how:

• Flore de Taisne & Edmund Le Brun, Ishkar, Paris

Facing together the challenge of ensuring refugees social inclusion:

• Cristina Franchini, UNHCR Italy, Florence
• Valentina Pagliai, Human Rights and Training Manager, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Europe

Artisanship as vector for refugees’ social inclusion. Sharing European experiences. 

• Teresa Carvalheira, Mano a Mano – The Refugee Challenge, Lisbon
• Filomena Djassi, Aga Khan Foundation, Lisbon
• Fleur Bakker, Refugee Company – Save the Crafts Project, Amsterdam
• Benedita Contreras & Michele Beretta, Amal Soap, Lisbon

[1] provisional version

For further information contact us!