The aim of this project is both to improve the quality of the residents' stay in the center and to encourage exchanges between volunteers and residents, but also between residents. The residents are not a homogeneous group: they have different ages, nationalities, religions, lifestyles and life stories; there are sometimes major cultural differences between them.
The volunteers will work in several teams, which will likely be joined by residents of the center. On the one hand, they will participate in maintaining the residents' living environment (gardening and outdoor work, building benches, decorating a mural, DIY projects, tidying up, etc.). On the other hand, they will propose and participate in activities with the residents (numerous cooking workshops, sports, themed evenings, etc.), particularly with the children. As the project takes place during school holidays, the children will indeed be present at the center. Feel free to bring your ideas of activities.
Accomodation and food
You will be accommodated in the center, in a mixed dormitory with bunk beds. The toilets and showers are located in a separate building. You can store your valuables in the dormitory (which your group will have a key to) or in the staff kitchen.
You will eat with the residents the food prepared by the center. On some days, you will eat the food that you prepared yourselves during the cooking workshops with the residents.
You will share the same living conditions as the residents, which are very basic
Location and leisure
Sugny is a small, isolated village in southern Belgium close to the French border. By choosing this workcamp, you are choosing to live in nature. All around are fields, woods and small villages.
But there's no shortage of entertainment options: football pitches, basketball courts, etc.
During the weekend, depending on what you decide, you can organize cultural visits and travel to some of Belgium's biggest cities.
CAUTION: this is a very isolated area.
Project hosted by
The Fedasil reception centre for asylum-seekers in Sugny hosts people who have applied for asylum in Belgium. They have fled situations of war, persecution, discrimination or environmental disasters and hope, with this application, to get a refugee status that will allow them to reside legally in the country. Before being able to settle in Belgium and build their future there, they must therefore wait for their refugee status to be proven and granted through a long administrative process. During this time, they are hosted in this centre.
Always waiting, the residents of the centre live in uncertainty about the future and are sometimes subject to significant stress. Individual situations are multiple and complex, but never easy. Life at the Fedasil centre of Sugny reflects these individual dramas and the hopes of the residents.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/FedasilSugny/?locale=fr_FR
Directions to meeting point
Saturday the 25th of April in Gedinne train station at 3.05 pm. Please note, it is important to be on time: as the station is 25 km away from the center, it will not be possible to make several trips back and forth to pick up latecomers.
Find your route on : www.belgiantrain.be
Additional comments
The consumption of alcohol is strictly prohibited inside the center.
This project is a volunteering team, supported by the European Solidarity Corps program of the European Union. Compared to the usual workcamp participation scheme, some main financial and administrative differences must be underlined: The participation to the ESC volunteering teams is subjects to several principles and conditions, presented on the ESC webpage: https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity/mission_en The volunteers do not have to pay any fee (not sending, nor participation fee) to attend the project The volunteers will receive pocket money, calculated on basis of 6€/day, once they arrive on the project in Belgium The volunteers will receive a financial support for their travel, according to a maximum amount established in accordance with their travel distance The volunteers need to register on the European Solidarity Corps Portal; CBB will organize their matching, on the online system, with the volunteering project The volunteers will have to complete a participation report, submitted online by the ESC portal