Thursday, 21 November 2024
Event Details
Snapshots of the workshop (Photo: Sabrina Villenave) |
| Workshop: | Creating Communities of Solidarity |
| Description: | Proposal:
The organisation of a workshop with neurodivergent young people (16-25 years old) from Pinc College, to raise awareness of the disappearance of migrant children. The event aims to raise awareness of the different types of violence migrant children are vulnerable to and to create effective communities in solidarity.
Justification:
Since July 2021, 4,600 separated children seeking refuge in the UK have been housed in government-run hotels. There have been 440 incidents of children going missing. Two hundred children have disappeared and have never been found. In January 2023, a minister admitted that two hundred asylum-seeking children who were placed in hotels run by the Home Office have gone missing. There are six Home Office hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeker children, including one in Brighton. This project aims to create awareness of the disappearance of unaccompanied migrant children in the UK and to create a net of solidarity.
The talk about the issue of disappearance of migrants and the presentation of Conflict Textiles project will be followed by a workshop led by Fiona Smith. In the workshop participants will be invited to reflect on the issue of migration throughout the crafting of dolls and figurines in paper. The activity involves awakening of sensitivities around issues of care and ethics of humanity and the idea of each of us being part of a community of solidarity. |
| Commissioned by: | Dr Sabrina Villenave, Department of Politics, University of Manchester |
| Date(s): | 5th July 2024 - 5th July 2024 |
| Venue: | The Manchester Museum
University of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PL |
| Curator: | Sabrina Villenave and Roberta Bacic |
| Facilitator: | Sabrina Villenave and Fiona Smith |
| Outcome: | The workshop on Migration and Politics of Care was attended by students from Pinc College at the Manchester Museum. A group of 8 youths attended the workshop that involved the Arpillera: North Belfast Friendship Club exhibition in 2019, Maker: Asylum Seekers, facilitated by Roberta Bacic.
Sabrina first introduced the participants to the work of the “Conflict Textiles” and explained how the arpillera they were seeing was created, by whom, and in which context. She then introduced the issue of migration and the disappearance of (child) migrants, as well as migration in general. There was space to ask questions.
After that, we did a love and kindness meditation together for about 12 minutes. Everybody liked the guided meditation, and the tutors from Pinc College reported that it was a good way to bring the group to the task at hand, giving them time to reflect on what we would do and to calm their minds to start the crafting activity.
We then moved to the activity of crafting the figurines as representatives of migrants.
The activity brought us to discuss who we believe migrants are, their skills, why they leave their countries and how they can contribute to our society.
There was also space and a meaningful discussion on what we know about migrants and how we can show up to them with care; many students are part of a diverse migrant background and were happy to share their personal stories and experiences as migrants. |
| Documents: |
• Event: Creating Communities of Solidarity - view
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