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EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Food Distribution and Sustainable Development Actions
Country: Belgium, Waremme
Recipe for quality food distribution that respects the environment: encourage a balanced diet, offer seasonal vegetables and fruit every week, allow beneficiaries to be involved and take part, develop individual capabilities through specific actions, create a welcoming, respectful and friendly atmosphere. This is what the volunteers from the AIC group in Waremme, Belgium do every week. Read more
‘Eating Healthily’
Country: Egypt, Cairo
The aim of the project is to improve the living conditions of ten women in the Beaulac district of Cairo, through an income-generating activity. The women prepare healthy dishes full of fruit and vegetables for 1000 pupils and 50 teachers at the “Collège Saint Vincent de Paul” secondary school. These dishes allow pupils and teachers to eat in a healthier way, and the profits generated give the women beneficiaries an income to support their families. Read more
Common Vegetable Garden
Country: France, Saint-Valery-en-Caux, Normandy
The AIC volunteers from Saint-Valery-en-Caux in France have set up a vegetable garden for people living in poverty. The objectives are clear: provide healthy and seasonal fruits and vegetables and valorise the vegetable garden, the people that work in it and the food that is produced.
The project allows the people involved to gain nourishment and benefit from seasonal, high quality vegetables. For everyone it’s a way of recovering everyday skills… and those of the past which have been lost, even in a rural area.
It is an easy activity to implement in terms of resources, but it requires consistency and some humility in the face of the vagaries of nature, as no two years are ever the same. It is a way of learning to live with the rhythm of the seasons. Read more
‘Breakfast with a smile’ – Combatting contemporary forms of poverty
Country: Italy, La Spezia
Offering coffee and a smile to those who have nothing: such is the objective of the project Colazione con il Sorriso (“Breakfast with a smile”), created by Italian AIC volunteers. Four mornings a week, a small group of AIC volunteers welcome about 40 homeless people, offering them a drink and cookies, a homemade dessert and sometimes unsold bakery products. This warm and friendly atmosphere makes them feel like they are no longer invisible, and has already enabled some of them to find a job and a home. Read more
‘We are here’ – Sustainable development
Country: Italy, Biella
The “Firewood for All” project, known today as “We are here”, aims both to reintegrate unemployed people into the job market and to supply firewood to disadvantaged families in the province of Biella. Unemployed people are trained to maintain green spaces and forests, and the wood harvested through these activities is distributed to families in difficulty. Read more
‘No one is a stranger’ – Welcoming Migrants
Country: Italy, Turin
In a block of flats in the city of Turin, 40 families from all over the world, mostly single mothers with children, are learning to live together with the help of AIC volunteers. Different services are on offer to help them with social integration, gaining independence and entering the job market: personal support, language classes, professional training, administrative assistance and other activities to encourage integration. For the children, the volunteers offer help with homework and recreational activities. Read more
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Educational support – Education
Country: Lebanon, Beirut
For several years, Lebanon has been going through an unprecedented economic, social and financial crisis, which has plunged 80% of the population below the poverty line. This situation has been compounded by the Covid-19 crisis. The AIC Lebanon volunteers see in the youth of their country the hope of a better future, and want to promote access to education for children and young people. Read more
Supporting Ukraine
Country: Poland
Since February 2022, Poland has welcomed a large number of people who are migrants fleeing the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. AIC volunteers support almost 300 families in three Polish towns. They provide them with food, clothing and hygiene products to cover their basic needs. They also organize Polish language classes and sewing courses to create jobs for women. Joint celebrations, such as Easter, enable people who are migrants to get together and meet their compatriots. Read more
Supporting people who are migrants from Ukraine
Country: Slovakia
As Ukraine’s neighbor, Slovakia has been working with the Vincentian Family in Ukraine for several years. Since the outbreak of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in February 2022, this cooperation has been greatly strengthened, with volunteers welcoming people who are migrants, collecting clothing and food, and sending medical aid and hygiene products. In 2022, a large part of AIC Slovakia’s annual fundraising was used to support Ukraine, and its cooperation with the Vincentian Family enabled it to be among the first to successfully transport a shipment of humanitarian aid to the Ukrainian town of Perechyn, in the West of the country, which is home to many internally displaced people fleeing the conflicts in the East. Read more
Working with displaced people in a war context
Country: Ukraine
A Ukrainian AIC volunteer shares her personal experience of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Living in a city close to the border, she took refuge in the basement of a church for 10 days to protect herself from the bombings, before managing to flee to the west of the country. With fellow AIC volunteers, she is now supporting other internally displaced people in Ukraine who, like her, have fled the conflict, leaving everything behind. Read more
‘Oasis of Peace’ – Education and Health
Country: Ukraine, Kharkiv – East of the country
“My dream is that there are no more misunderstandings or wars between countries; that politicians discuss things, rather than send out soldiers; that there are no more bombs; that Ukraine becomes a peaceful country”. Words of one of the children at the Oasis of Peace centre. Read more
Living Simply and Sustainably in Solidarity with the Poor
Country: United Kingdom
It is not an excuse to say that taking care of the world is too much for one person, on the contrary, everyone can get involved for the planet.
Together, we will achieve a positive outcome for the viability and sustainability of our planet. Read more