Author: CaBuReRa

It’s been exactly two years since the beginning of this adventure.

Yes, CaBuReRa was an adventure for me!

When I was informed that I was going to coordinate an ENPI project about youth mobility with Mediterranean countries, I thought that surely it would have been a demanding path, full of unpredictable challenges, but I never expected it to be primarily an opportunity to meet new people, refresh my knowledge of Arabic and, above all, a way to get in contact with a world and a culture, the Arab one, that increasingly scares and causes distrust.

During these two years I have learned new things related to project management, both from the financial and administrative point of view. I have been able to confront myself with new ways of work and time management. But mostly I learned what it means to live in Lebanon, where a young girl does not have the freedom to choose whom to marry, I discovered the situation of Syrian refugees in Jordan, and I saw with my own eyes how a young Palestinian lives and what it means to live under a continuous control and, above all, deprived of the freedom of movement and of thought.

These two years have been very intense, full of surprises, unexpected events and new, generous and interesting people.

And that is why I will not forget any of them!

I will always thank all of them for having shared with me their stories, their thoughts and their “craziness”, that were also instilled in me!

So THANK YOU Nairouz, Muna, Mohammad, Valentina V., Luisa, Anna, Valentina A., Sara, Federica N, Alice, Federica M., Aurora, Antea, Giorgio, Mario, Alessia , Marta, Sofia, Dario, Caterina, Rosa, Ghaida, Olivia, Suha, Natali, Baraah, Noor, Dalia, Hassan, Wisam, Asil, Saja, Haya, Ibrahim, Yazeed, Georgia, Katerina, Konstantinos, Nicky, Stamatia, Konstantinos, Giorgos, Eftychia, Giorgos T., Katerina, Haris Rose, Hussein, Abbass, Batoul, Zahraa, Hamza, Hussein, Yousef, Reem, Sara R., Sara M., Antonio, Ana, Helga, Daniel, Marisa, Monica, Osvaldo, Ana Catarina, Deema, Ragheb, Zaid, Husein, Esra’a, Al Ali, Dyaa, Zaid K., Nidal, Nahar, Ahmad, Bayan, Sereene, Sara Q., Nardeen, Amro.

Rita Quisillo

What the CaBuReRa project means to us?

In every day of our life, it has never been that easy to appreciate the value of something, while you are still living it. More or less, this is what happened during the CaBuReRa experience.

The reason is that we were so focused on our mobility abroad, with all those sensitive issues related to it, that we almost forgot the importance of the second part of the project in our homeland.

But, to be honest, the local internship in Palermo trained me more than what I expected and, from my perspective, that occurred not just because I improved some skills I already acquired before.

Me and my colleagues, we have had the chance to work in a non-competitive and friendly space. This allowed us be the most confident and creative we could. CESIE became our daily track, the place we spent more than half of our time, working and then hanging around with our colleagues, organising dinners, parties or events. It suddenly became difficult to understand when work finished and life started. And this happens when you like your job and you are devoted to it.

With other participants, I even had the opportunity to propose my own project, to design it, to discuss about it and finally to implement it. Project cycle management became interesting, stimulating, fulfilling and funny. Our ideas started to have an impact on our city, in our country. Full management of this project allowed us develop new skills, and improve those we had already acquired; most importantly, it taught us how to deal with young people from our city (as target group of the project) and helped us realise how fun, interesting and exciting Palermo can be.

And the funniest thing is that we were born and we have been living in Palermo in the same city, and we never met before. But luckily, we employed this last year to know more about each other, to retrieve the time we missed, turning ourselves into incredibly good working partners and friends.

Recalling this experience with all the moments we spent together, it is clear that it was more than a friendship: we grew together. It was an important moment of our life, the end of university and the beginning of work. We faced this strange changeover together, it was as we shared it.

Exactly one year ago, our experience as TG2 started: we then reached many and different places, we lived so many different lives, and we met again in Palermo, where everything started.

Now here we are, together in difference, close in distance, a great team at work, great friends everywhere else.

Federica, Marta & Sofia

On 12th of December some element of the Lebanese CaBuReRa Team went together with the trainer to the Municipality of Khraybeh. After taking one Van and Taxi, we arrive to one of most far the Municipalities, situated just for 4Km away from Syria (See photo 1). Apparently we found a calm place, having in attention all the tough and problematic times that Syria is passing through (and curiously we could even see a car with this hoping statement , contrasting with the current living situation – “Live Well, Love Much…Laugh Often” – See photo 2).

After discussing the needs of Khraybeh Municipality with the Mayor, we reach to a point about continuing the school building they were constructing before with the help of a Lebanese Party from the Government (See photo 3).

There was no doubt that this Municipality is not having so much support because of the location. I felt that is possible to work on the Municipality and individuals (mainly NGOS or INGOs) are just afraid to go in such place (See photo 4), were people are working in agriculture (See photo 5), selling products (ex. Bread) door by door, and where there is the willing to do much more on a daily basis, starting for example for the Education of the Khraybeh children.

We know that in a near future it is possible to help the Khraybeh Municipality with some project that will bring life and development to the population, because there is not such a war or threat that can be stronger that the determination to do!

António Oliveira