Between October and December, AIDGLOBAL, in partnership with the Centro Social Paroquial da Charneca – Galinheiras SS.CC. and Culturface – Associação Cultural para o Desenvolvimento, promoted 21 training sessions, theoretical and practical, under the motto “Community Garden”
The activity was attended by 13 refugees and asylum seekers from Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Ghana and Congo. To enrich the formation, elderly Portuguese users of the Parish Center joined the group.
The beneficiaries participated in multidisciplinary training, dedicated to the promotion of cultural integration and orientation to the labor market: presentation of Portuguese culture, simulation of conversations in Portuguese, development of communication in sales and marketing and entrepreneurship.
All the theoretical aspects were addressed simultaneously with the creation of the “Community Garden”, a practical part of the project that took place in the garden of the Centro Social Paroquial da Charneca.
The practical sessions were fundamental for the establishment of a connection between the newly arrived participants and the local community as well as for the knowledge of the Galinheiras neighborhood, through an entity of the neighborhood. Under the guidance of the agricultural technician, João Santos, the beneficiaries shared and exchanged experiences that contributed to the construction of new interpersonal relationships and acquisition of new skills in the area of organic agriculture.
After the training period, and already with acquired capacities, the beneficiaries had the opportunity to put into practice what they learned in the sessions, through the sale of the products grown in the Community Garden, at the Galinheiras Fair.
In the end, the participants, enthusiastic about the result of this great teamwork, considered this day “incredible”, “wonderful” and “unique”. It proves the positive impact of another action framed in the “NEAR” project.
“NEAR – NEWLY ARrived in a common home” is a European project financed by the European Commission, within the scope of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) with the ISMU Foundation as a promoter and as partner entities Tamat, CARDET, the AIDGLOBAL and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. In Portugal, this project is being developed in Lisbon.
