Integration between different cultures begins with women: in all societies they are dedicated to preserving tradition and building “bridges” with other communities. The 3rd of January at Palazzo Turrisi Palumbo in the presence of the mayor Carlo Salvemini, with a parade of young models from different countries, there has been the launch of the atelier “Migrants du Monde” Italy, a project funded by the Apulian Region and conceived by Social Cooperative Orient-Occident Onlus (FOO Italy), thanks to an agreement with the Municipality of Lecce.
“Migrants du Monde” provides for the creation of a workshop of annual duration, located on the first floor of Palazzo Turrisi-Palumbo, which will bring together six working women – three migrants and three residents in the municipality of Lecce – in a project to enhance traditional activities that unite the local cultures of embroidery and sewing. The migrant women, selected in partnership with ARCI and coming from Iraq, Afghanistan and Mali, will be trained for six months – under the full charge of ARCI – and will subsequently be employed in a second phase of embroidery and tailoring in collaboration with three women from Salento with experience in the sector, selected with a call for proposal published in August 2018 (the women are selected by a commission composed by the president of the Cooperative Yasmina Antonia Filali, the Councilor for Equal Opportunities and Civil Rights Silvia Miglietta and the artistic director of the atelier, the designer Bruna Pizzichini). The workshop will start up by the end of January 2019.
Migrants du Monde has as its objective the activation of an innovative business with a high social impact, capable of combining the enhancement of the craft and artistic heritage of embroidery and sewing both from Salento and other cultures of the world, encouraging social integration between migrant women and local embroiderers, who will collaborate in the creation of culturally and stylistically unique garments.
Migrants du Monde is a good practice of integration that originates from the experience gained in Morocco by the Fondation Orient-Occident with the opening, back in 2010, of the social tailoring “Migrants du Monde” in Rabat, and from the long process of capitalization of the experience acquired by the Foundation in Morocco in various areas of intervention: advocacy and protection of human rights, training, socio-professional integration, interculturality and enhancement of cultural traditions.
