Sharing is Caring In 2015 the number of newly arrived asylum seekers in Europe more than doubled compared to the year before, exceeding 1.2 million refugees according to Eurostat. In 2016 the trend is not changing, every day thousands of people flee their country at war and try to reach Europe in hope for a better life. European countries are in the middle of the worst refugee crisis since WWII. But even after crossing the rough seas of the Mediterranean or making their way in tough conditions over land, the suffering of refugees is not over. The receiving countries are not able to handle the huge amounts of people and as solidarity crumbles all over the Union, efficient solutions are still to be found. At present it is clear that action is necessary on every level of society, from grassroots effort to state governments. GO-ERCN with its partners would like to take part in helping the local populations accept and adapt to the influx of refugees as well as contribute to the integration of the newly arrived to local societies by introducing a Givebox in communities that host refugees. A Givebox (with a motto of “sharing is caring”) would be a place where help can come in material shape or be dematerialized. The participants of this project will be young people with fewer opportunities accompanied by an adult professional from each country.Step 1: Discover, document and conceptualizeDuring the first part of the 5-day visit the participants will learn about the real needs of refugees. They will also obtain first-hand information about the concerns, fears and willingness to help of local inhabitants. After studying potential reasons for conflict on both sides and ways to co-operate they will imagine creative solutions to alleviate difficult situations.Focusing on social, civic and intercultural components the participants will study how each country has dealt with refugee and local population interaction. They will also observe if and how the concepts of circular economy, freecycling and sustainability are part of the solution.Step 2: Workshops and creating a functional GiveboxIn each country the participants will attend workshops that evolve around the topics of non-violent communication, racism, discrimination, eco-design and life cycle analysis.During the second part of the first two visits the participants will analyze what they have learned from the information gathered and work on putting together a set of requirements that can be used as a tool to create an efficient Givebox in the areas in need of aid and assistance. The goals is to develop one (or several) multi-functional Givebox concept(s) that could be freely used once the project is over. This set of requirements will be used to launch a contest called “My Givebox to You” and it will take place in all participating countries.Step 3: Dissemination of resultsThe results of the Givebox design contest will be disseminated during the last international visit to a large young public and also in all partner countries.The final design(s) will be published online using a creative commons license that will allow free downloading and can be modified according to the needs of the user.
The thirteen months long Sharing Is Caring refugees project gathered eight young refugees and four accompanying persons from France, Spain, Greece and Slovenia, investigating about ways to build constructive links between refugees and locals. Four courses were successfully documented to know who are the refugees, how to design and build give boxes, how to create services offerings, and how to broadcast them. Sixty one schools were informed of a contest in which nineteen students answered and proposed models of give boxes, among them two were selected as laureates. Three events gathering forty five persons, a website with 638 visitors, a FB page followed by 187 persons and with pic of 4000 visits contributed to the broadcasting of the project The results of the project were also disseminated through four further unplanned events, linking results to two other european projects and associating two news local partners (Forum Refugiés Cosi and Stucom Barcelona) An upgradable "Become a SIC ambassador !" animation kit gathering all lessons of the project is freely downloadable on www.sharing-is-caring-refugees.eu. It contains docs, links, give box plans, animation and broadcasting methods to be used by all persons or organizations wishing to improve the relationships between refugees and locals in their close area.