CRIC - Centro Regionale di Intervento per la Cooperazione

Interculture CRIC implements project in favor of migrants communities in Italy, operating in a triangular system: Italy, immigrants, original community. This approach is based on exchange of experiences and knowledge with migrant communities and constitute the axis of CRIC intervention in the fields of human rights and cohabitation. During 2007 CRIC consolidated the partnership with migrants communities such as the Senegalese Association in Milan and Province, the Ecuadorians Community in Milan and the Association Todo Cambia. CRIC committed in the diffusion of inter-culture as an education methodology, continued the work with libraries in Milan Province. Specific activities have been realised to promote the protagonism of migrant through cultural events and exhibitions by artists migrants in Italy, whose contribution to the construction of a new culture is unquestioned. Intercultural paths to the oneself discovery in a multi-cultural society have been activated in the schools In Milan has been activated the Neighborhood Contract – San Siro, where CRIC field office is located, which created the Neighborhood Workshop, a space to put synergies of the present realities together in programmes and initiatives orientated to improve the cohabitation in the peripheral metropolitan area, particularly decaying. The volume “Archipelago of Migrations” was published on the history of migrants’ presence, thanks to the contribution of migrants to the Province of Milan during the years. Education to development, information and communication Water. A Common Good. National campaign aimed at the awareness raising of public opinion as concerns national problematic linked to the scarcity of this resource, indispensable for the survival on human being. Cooperation? Yes, thanks! Campaign to recall attention of public opinion on problematic related to the international cooperation to development in the present context. It highlight the critical points and the potentialities, besides the transformation occurred in the course of the years, with the participation of new actors and the proposition of new strategies bottom-up. The campaign allowed a research on the perception of the problematic by developing country, and about the cooperation discourse among young people in Italy. From conflict to partnership for development. Campaign mainly addressed to schools and universities about problematic related to international armed conflict, the role of humanitarian aid and the intervention of NGOs. With this logic it was intended to give space to the direct expressions of those living personally the drama of the war, who represents it though artistic language. The focus was on four case studies: Kosovo, Congo, RASD, Palestine. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION CRIC has started its experience of international cooperation realizing initiatives of local development in Central America and South America since1984. It has been promoting also plans of support to the populations in areas of serious conflicts since 1987, working in Palestine (since 1987), in the Balkans (1992), the Horn of Africa (1990), trying to answer to the hit subjects with the own solidarity .The commitment in the so-defined programs of emergency and humanitarian aid it should be read in this key of interpretation. Bethlehem 21 Project - Environmental Sustainability for a Better Life: An Integrated Approach for Localizing Agenda 21 in the Bethlehem District Bethlehem District: Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Za’tara, Al Khader municipalities, the rural council of Battir - Palestina DESCRIZIONE Leaded by ARIJ (Applied REsearch Institute-Jerusalem) in partnership with CRIC, Bethlehem 21 project will develop the capacities of local and national authorities including Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahour, Za’tara, Al Khader municipalities, the rural council of Battir, the Ministry of local Government (MoLG) – Department of Joint Councils for Services, Planning and Development (DJCspd), the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority (PEQA), the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA), Bethlehem Governorate, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Water and Sanitation Authorities to reinforce them to enter into dialogue with citizens and local organizations in order to develop local sustainability action strategies or “Local Agendas 21”. The participatory approach will be in the form of a visioning process that focuses on bringing together a broad section of the community with the local authority to develop a shared vision for the sustainability of their community and plan how to achieve it. OBIETTIVI The main objectives of Bethlehem 21 project are: • To secure and maintain the involvement of the targeted local and national authorities throughout and after the course of project implementation. • To establish an effective participatory process that ensures a representative participation of the communities’ members with the targeted local and national authorities in the community visioning process. • To assess the communities’ environmental and socioeconomic conditions as well as the institutional arrangements, structures and practices. • To establish a GIS based information system and reinforce the technical capacities of the selected municipalities and rural councils in GIS, database management and environmental monitoring. • To formulate shared community vision statements that declare the communities’ visions for more sustainable communities and to set sustainability goals, targets and actions • To develop local sustainability action strategies “Local Agendas 21” based on the baseline community profiles and the outcomes of the community visioning process. • To transfer the gained knowledge to other local authorities in the West Bank and encourage them to carry out similar sustainability initiatives. ATTIVITA' 1. Developing decision makers’ capacities in sustainable development and the process of localizing Agenda 21 through thematic group meetings with local experts. 2. Issuing a declaration of the sustainability planning effort and seeking the support of the MoLG, DJCspd, PEQA, MoH, PWA, Bethlehem Governorate and the PCBS to endorse the declaration and mandate the involvement of the selected councils in the project. 3. Electing a steering committee from members of the involved authorities to oversee the implementation process. 4. Publicizing the sustainability initiative and its outcomes at the various stages by means of press releases in local media, conducting meetings with local organizations and decision makers, preparing flyers and establishing a project website. 5. Organizing community awareness campaigns in the form of information and awareness sessions targeting the communities’ members. 6. Electing citizens’ committees from members of the various communities sectors. 7. Data collection through review of available databases and publications and through conducting semi structured interviews with local authorities and organizations. 8. Establishing a GIS based information system composed of environmental and socioeconomic databases. 9. Transferring the GIS based information system and the computers hardware to the targeted councils and training selected personnel on GIS techniques, database mangement and on environmental monitoring. 10. Profiling the communities using the pressure, state, current practice framework. 11. Conducting community forums to bring people together to participate in the visioning process in order to develop shared visions for more sustainable communities and formulate sustainability goals, and actions through brainstorming and establishing key area task forces. 12. Developing a detailed description for each of the identified actions. 13. Integrating the outcomes of the visioning process, the actions’ description and the findings of the community profiles to develop local sustainability action strategies. 14. Organizing a national workshop with participation of local authorities, ministries, non-governmental organizations, international funding agencies and the established key area task forces to disseminate the findings, transfer the gained experience to others and identify funding sources. Also the project SMIR - Centre for the environmental education and the development in the city of Tetouan, in Morocco- is part of the initiatives of safeguard and valorization of the natural resources. The selected strategy is to create a Centre for the Environmental education and sustainable tourism (CEATUS) that it allows to realize educational campaigns addressed to the local population and tourists on the priority themes of the zone, creating occasions of development compatible with the characteristics of the context, taking advantage from the experiences and the competences of all the partner involved ( Reves network and Municipality of Messina - Laboratory of environmental education and the Moroccan ngo Centre Mediterranen pour Envoironnment et developpment - CMED). In Palestine, besides the socio-educational and food security projects already mentioned, the work of CRIC has engaged on the improvement of the hygienic-environmental conditions in the Municipality of Beit Lahiya, rationalizing the system of collection of the garbage and orienting it to the reduction of the amounts conferred in rubbish dump and to theirs use as derived raw materials. Two initiatives are in course in this within, “Management and Recycling of the City Solid garbage in the Municipality of Beit Lahiya - Strip of Gaza” and “Sanabil Production of Compost from City Organic Garbage and environmental education in the Municipality of Beit Lahiya”, co-funded by the Ministry for foreign affairs and the Lombardia Region. An other important engagement is the project “Bethlehem 21 Project - Environmental Sustainability for a better life: An Integrated Approach for Localising Agenda 21 in the Bethlehem District”, realized in partnership with ARIJ (Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem) that aimed to strengthen the capacity of local and national authorities in dialogue with the citizenship and the local organizations with the objective to develop local strategies of action for the sustainability or “local Agendas 21”. In Lebanon in order to contribute to the return of the population in five villages bombed during the last israelo-lebanese conflict and with the specific objective to restore the social, educational and cultural life of the young people, it has implemented the project “Strengthening of the Social Cohesion in the process of reconstruction of the post-conflict country” that is proposed to restructure spaces of aggregation for the youth, preesistent and damaged during the conflict in order to make them usable again like places of promotion of the dialogue, the social cohesion and the inter-religious and inter-communitarian cohabitation. Moreover it promotes the organization of formative training (focused on the social Dialogue, the Prevention of the Conflicts, the self-education and the Resilience) and of capacity building (management of the cultural and youth centres, awareness on various social thematic like environment , formation etc.). At last in the within of the project it is previewed to promote moments of encounter and exchange in order to support the social cohesion between the young people and the inter-religious and cultural dialogue. In 2007 the collaboration with the National Union of the Saharawi Women has been developed trough a project in the refugees camps near Tindouf in Algeria. The three years project is implemented in 27 Febrero camp and it becomes part of the efforts that the UNMS, on one side, and the School of Formation of the Women, from the other, are leading in order to promote the socioeconomical development of the Saharawi women. In particular the project strengthens the system of formation and existing education (through course of formation in several matters, from computer science to driving, etc), it supports the handicraft cooperatives created by the women, supporting moreover the introduction of the productions in trade circuits and at last it values the traditional culture with particular emphasis on that feminine one, through an anthropological research and its publication on web for a local and international spread. In the environmental field, it is being achieved in Albania and Macedonia the project “Parco Transfrontaliero di Prespa - Program of support to the cooperation and the sustainable local development in protected areas of the district of the Orhid lake, Prespa”. Through this project the skills in the field of environment protection, planning and management are being strengthened oriented to the sustainable development of the local communities and the natural resources and to the marketing of the products in the local, national and international markets. It answers to the express and shared needs of the institutions involved to transform the parks in laboratories directed to improve the living conditions of the local populations and to facilitate the participation in protection and environmental monitoring activities. Therefore it has been turned specific attention to the following fields : -Prevention of the disasters and the natural calamities -Environmental Emergencies -Refugees support -Community Services -Socio-educational support -Psycho-social Support -Food Security CRIC has achieved in this field of intervention in the last period the following initiatives: - “Socio-educational support to the children of Gaza Strip” who has allowed to give continuity to the experience of CRIC in Palestine in many kindergartens of Gaza Strip thanks to the financings of the European Commission (ECHO). The children under school age are the first beneficiaries of the project through activity of not formal education for the creation of a pleasant atmosphere where they can feel theirselves sure and shielded and where they can discover and express “the being child”, condition denied in the conflict situations - “Enhancing food security and economic conditions for vulnerable Bedouin families living in Gaza Strip” who supports 1200 breeders belonging to 26 communities Bedouins in Gaza Strip from the formative and veterinary level, having as indirect beneficiaries approximately 9.000 persons. The project has promoted and implemented activities of formation for the flock care , forage cultivation, improvement of the living conditions of approximately 20.000 ovines, vaccinations and distribution of food for the flocks. Youth in action. In the framework of Youth in action programme has been organised the international training course : CROSS THE BORDER, creative citizenship trough art and media :The project is a multilateral training on artistic practices for social transformation for youth leaders, educators and multipliers working with young people in the Euro-Mediterranean Area (coming both from Formal and Non Formal education sector) engaged in context of conflict .The countries involved are Italy, Lebanon, Greece, Palestine, Spain and 25 participants (5 for each country) The Subject of the training course is the so-called engaged art or those forms of artistic expression used as a way of socio-political participation : how the use of visual art can become tool of social integration. Its aim is to develop a process of reflection and action about the use of arts and media as tool to promote the access to citizenship as a possibility to influence and thus change on its community. The project wants to stimulate people to use their creativity and react on what is happening around them. The idea behind this training course is to give participants an opportunity to think about their own identity, the elements it comprises of and the factors that shaped it and then to go a step further and explore the ways in which their identity can be linked to their needs, interests, dreams and expectations within their local communities. The course is designed to create the space where participants experience and reflect upon activities and concepts central to human rights education based on experiential learning approaches. The course is also designed as a space for mutual learning, where participants exchange their approaches to training and compare human rights situation, especially regarding human rights issues, across the Mediterranean Area in a dialogical intercultural approach and environment