2018 - Food Stories from Home
Media Workshop Series a Success!
As this first workshop series in Rome wraps up, I am struck by what a wonderful learning experience it was for everyone involved. We collaborated and came together as a cohesive team, using traditional food as a medium for expression of cultural heritage and integration into our new home, Rome. We used the time learning about each other's cultures, documenting traditions and learning to turn then into digital stories. It was a bonding experience that promoted healing through learning, and a successful prototype for expanding the project.
One class session that stands out in particular for me was the day that Omaima, one of the women in the workshops, showed me a video she had taken with her phone of the boat ride from Libya to Italy. My heart sank to see her face as she alternated between watching that video and looking up at me. She told me how scared she was, especially when the sun was going down and night was coming: "It was the darkest night I'd ever known." The little rubber boat was so full that she almost fell into the sea every time they hit a wave.
After Omaima finished sharing her experience, other women wanted to show photos of their children back home and to talk about each of their journeys to Italy. It is incredibly rewarding to know that workshops like these really can build trust, inspire openness and facilitate communication between displaced women as they seek to rebuild their lives.
And it is incredibly heartening to know that the workshops continue to effect change in women's lives. I recently heard from a participant in Kenya who showed such incredible talent and entrepreneurship during the workshops that I left a camera with her in Nairobi for her to continue to photograph and document her life. Recently, we received the wonderful news that she has sold a photograph to the New York Times and will be featured in an upcoming story about international migration in Africa! The story has allowed her to change her living arrangement for the better, and given her a new start! I will share the piece with all of you, as soon as it is published--thank you for all of your help in making this possible!
Food From Home
When it comes to displaced people, Italy in an interesting position—both geographically and socially. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of people have landed on the shores of the islands around southern Italy in search of a better life. Because of the EU Dublin Regulation, those seeking refuge must stay in the country of arrival until all their paperwork is processed and approved. This has left Italy overwhelmed and in a situation where those tasked with helping people are feeling like their hands are tied.
With the help of local community organizers, we were able to connect with a safe house (CAS); these are centers that are set up by the local authorities, often in a convent or abbey, to handle the spillover from the existing reception facilities. In these homes, migrants and asylum seekers wait for their papers to be processed and then to be transferred to a second reception facility. Ideally, this process should take a limited amount of time, but in practice it usually takes years and can leave the people housed in the CAS feeling isolated, forgotten and with pretty low spirits. Imagine risking everything to come and then finding yourself in a limbo without end.
Five Women from Five Countries, speaking Five Languages came together to film, direct and produce a digital recipe and share the food with the community.
With all of this in mind, we developed a workshop series intending to build a sense of community within the CAS, while developing marketable digital skills for the participants. Together, we told stories through a common language of comfort food. We made digital recipes of the favorite dishes from the participants’ home countries of Morocco, Tibet, Georgia and Somalia.
