The City of Peace Foundation for Children Basilicata
The foundation, founded by the Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams, and now chaired by the Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams is a unique example of cooperation of Public bodies, NGOs and Private entrepreneurs that cooperate for guarantee an appropriate hosting and integration of refugees.
Starting from 2012 we work to host, protect and integrate refugees and asylum seekers using the diffused reception model and we work with schools to diffuse the values of human rights and the peaceful coexistence.
The Foundation from beginning considered the environmental and social equality issues as crucial factors for migration and we adopted the UN 2023 objectives. Cooperating with the Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and we carried out some project to face the climate crisis:
- House for peace: The project was donated by the architect Mario Cucinella. The eco-sustainable building was built in Scanzano Ionico thanks to a fundraiser promoted by actress and human rights activist Sharon Stone, with resources from private entrepreneurs. House for Peace is a model that can be replicated in other contexts and as of 2021 has housed 3 families of refugees from humanitarian corridors.
- Trees for peace: Since 2020 the Foundation has been planting around 3.000 trees, both to create new green lungs in the cities with fruit trees, and to activate innovative training courses in collaboration with agricultural institutes for young people who have been welcomed into our projects together with young people from the hosting communities.
- Social business: The reduction of social and economic inequalities is the goal of the Social Business plan conceived by Muhammad Yunus. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient, together with the Foundation, intends to create the conditions for transforming young people, both local and foreign, from “job seekers” to “job creators”. In order to promote the Social Business methodology, applied successfully by Prof. Yunus all over the world, the first Yunus Social Business Center of Southern Italy was created in 2019 together with the University of Basilicata and the Italian network of YSBC (Yunus Social Business Center) and the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Urbino and Venice.
Climate change in fact will be one of the primary causes of migration in coming years, which is why the Foundation has adopted the objectives of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which recognized the positive impact of migration for inclusive growth and sustainable development, not only for countries of origin and transit, but also for the countries of destination.
History
The Foundation was born from an idea of Betty Williams, Nobel Peace Laureates. Since 2012 we have been hosting in our facilities and projects more than 1500 refugees, mainly families with children and unaccompanied minors.
The Foundation also implements an annual school campaign on the human rights that has involved more than 15.000 students from the primary school till the University.
We carried out also special projects for the environmental and social sustainability.
For us, reception, integration and solidarity are social and economic values not only ethic one. Reception and above all integration, allow developing innovative project, defining these territories as virtuous places where peace and multicultural coexistence underpin social relationships and are tools both for an individual and collective sustainable growth.
For this reason, we have summed up our mission as: Let’s begin to change the future from our communities together with refugees. The Foundation it is a no profit organization and an independent private-law entity, registered in the legal entity register of the Prefecture of Potenza. The founders are the Basilicata Region, the Municipalities of Scanzano Jonico and Sant’Arcangelo, the World Centre of Compassion for Children International and the World Centre of Compassion for Children Italy, and in 2018 two private companies which are active in our territory, Soc. Coop. “Il Sicomoro” and Sa.Ges. srl and in 2022 another municipality, City of Lauria, joined us as supporters.
The staff of the Foundation is composed by the Executive director and two consultants who are dealing with the monitoring and management of the reception projects and the communication and awareness raising initiatives that are supported by around 10 volunteers.
The Foundation works in partnership with other organisations rooted in the territory for managing its reception project, mainly with Arci Basilicata.
Actions for asylum seekers and refugees
In 2023 within the SAI Projects managed by the Foundation with its project partners, more than 250 refugees, of which 120 minors, from 24 countries were received in 10 municipalities spread on a wide internal territory of Basilicata.
The support processes start knowing the stories of the people arriving here, to understand their necessity to improve their life condition.
For each of them, a path of inclusion has been tailored, encompassing the reception and protection of their rights to facilitate their integration into Italian society.
All people hosted in our projects, have the possibility to be involved in activities facilitating their inclusion on the local communities, by granting to all of them the same opportunities of grow and integration.
Our guests start with learning Italian, not only in the language classes organised within reception centres: adults are enrolled in the course of the Centre of Education of Adults, while of school-age minors are enrolled in the traditional educational paths. Learning Italian is essential to undertake a successful path of social-working integration.
Concerning the working our guest have the opportunity to be involved in training on the work activities in sectors such as construction, handicraft, agriculture, cleaning and personal services, restaurant and trade.
Moreover, some workshops aiming at fostering social integration have been organised theatrical workshops and many seminars and public initiatives.
The awareness-raising campaign for school “The School for Peace” has reached its tenth edition. It is aimed to make students aware of human rights and refugees’ issues and during the Covid-19 lock-down we developed a specific educational online platform “MigraAzioni – edu” (https://www.migrazioni-edu.it) to permit the distance learning.
Considering the inequalities and the climate crises ad main factors for migration we developed projects for sustainability involving the Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and the Mario Cucinella Architects.
http://www.cityofpeace.it/index.php/en
https://www.facebook.com/fondazionecittadellapace
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