How to #unFail the refugee crisis | Three Brussels events you should not miss in February!

26/2, 09:00-16:00, Brussels: Collaborative inclusion | How migrants-residents collaboration can produce social values. A reflexive design workshop lead by Prof. Ezio Manzini

“Collaborative inclusion” is a reflexive design exercise to explore how collaboration between migrants and residents can strengthen the social fabric. More precisely, we look at what kinds of collaborative services (intended as result-oriented collaborations among different actors) can produce social, cultural and economic value. If you are looking for a well-designed process to explore how you can realistically contribute towards, and benefit from, collaborating with migrants then this workshop is for you. This event is run by a stellar team and lead by one of the leading authorities on design for social innovation and sustainability. For more information and registration please visit the event page:  http://bit.ly/1Q16cic

26/2 at 16:00, Brussels: The tyranny of Benevolence - Moving beyond charity based approaches in refugee reception and inclusion

Many well-meaning efforts to welcome and care for refugees employ charity-based approaches that position people currently in the asylum process as “weak” recipients of our benevolence. These narratives pigeonhole people now seeking asylum as costs to the system. In so doing they risk fueling mechanisms of exclusion, ensuring the newcomers will never be treated as equals in our communities. This workshop offers participants an opportunity to discover new approaches, methods and tools through which they can better achieve their objectives - without contributing towards the rise of ethnocentric nationalist populism. It is lead by Edgeryders co-founder Nadia El-Imam. For more information and registration please visit the event page:  https://goo.gl/0o6Rai

27/2, at 16:00, Brussels: UnFailing the refugee care system in Armenia

Armenia is the third European country with the biggest number of displaced people from Syria. This talk introduces the issues preventing the refugees to become self-sustainable in the long run and proposes ways to improve the current social care system in Armenia: We are accepting refugees but do not have a social system enabling the newcomers to integrate in our society. There is no organization which truly deals with all of the challenges Syrian Armenians are facing here. As a result, most of them get disappointed and do not stay in Armenia failing to find jobs, affordable housing, etc. The result being a missed once in a lifetime opportunity to gain a huge human capital increase”. This session will be led by Anna Kamay who is currently working for an Armenian social enterprise that aims to significantly improve the lives and well-being of the thousands of Syrian-Armenians impacted by the ravaging war in Syria. For more information and registration please visit the event page: https://goo.gl/Z8wsMR

Image source: Who is cashing in on keeping migrants out?

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