It was long since last the rain had blessed the Portuguese shores, but from the 11th to the 20th February all roads led EXODUS’ representatives there, and not even the water from above dared to miss the moment.
In a week marked by the substantiation of a lasting menace creating a renewed migratory movement in Eastern Europe, more than 20 people originating in 10 different world countries have come together in Santa Maria da Feira, northern Portugal, to reflect upon the reality of migrants and to try different techniques to promote the respect for their rights.
From Gamification and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques, to the definition of narratives and counter-narratives and the development of audio-visual campaigns, all the work developed summed up to an action plan to be followed in the next months by all partners.
The first actions already took place during the training, with a public event that brought the local community together with our participants in a sequence of moments worth remembering.
Besides Rosto Solidário’s team common efforts, also other local organizations were involved in our learning process. A visit to S. Cirilo Community Center’s headquarters and PELE collective’s exhibit, both in Porto,gave the group an opportunity to know, on the one hand, a place that is home for migrants (and not only) supported by the Jesuit Refugee Service in Portugal, and, on the other hand, the result of the work developed with various audiences (in this case, prisoners in particular) by an entity that uses Arts (namely, Theatre of the Oppressed techniques) as a tool to facilitate integration and self-development, as well as the processes used to get there.
Taking part in an Andean music concert, interviewing people on the streets of Porto, getting to taste Mamuila Filó’s amazing cape verdean cuisine and meeting the participants of Rosto’s I-TALES project during the public sharing of our results were also great opportunities to share the amazing richness natural human movement spreads around the globe.
During this week we worked upon migration as what the Theatre of the Oppressed’s creator, Augusto Boal, points out with his techniques to be the “Chinese crisis”: the Chinese word for “crisis” is written with two characters, one meaning “danger”, the other one meaning “turning point”, usually translated in English as “opportunity”. The choice on whether we see it as one or the other is ours, and the impact we have in the world regarding this specific subject is also on us to define.
The road is long, but one more step has been taken by the EXODUS team.
Join us, if you will: raise your voice, stand up for (everybody’s, but particularly migrants’) Human Rights!
