SOLIDARITY BREAD
“The effects of such an initiative bring peace, enrich and encourage connections between very different people. While working to revive customs and traditional practices, an individual starts to think about the kind of food he/she consumes, thinks about how things can happen in an urban environment, so that there is no food insecurity or lack of knowledge about how to prepare bread. The results gradually show that more and more people enjoy this activity and improve their communication skills on socially meaningful topics. The joint initiative [with the Sofia Bread House] is like a ray of light in the otherwise polluted, misty Sofia air, creating reflections from one street pothole to another across the streets of the city and their homeless. When we pour water in a hole, from time to time, a reflection of a time window appears, through which we can go out of the daily gloom and find like-minded changemakers (ChangeBakers as you like to call them). When there is persistence, and people keep this hole full, it will continue to flicker to more and more good-doers, who in turn will smile more, and if they have a mirror, they can reflect the light further on. Eventually this ray of light will illuminate the entire city, so that there will not be a dark place left unnoticed in its misery!”
How can our methodology benefit your work:
- Providing an opportunity for homeless and low income people to meet with various members of the society under the motto Around bread we are all equal
- A therapeutical approach to psychological issues
- Making, baking and breaking bread together as an universal symbol of building a better society together based on understanding, solidarity, dignity and respect for the others
- Mixing people from all walks of life gives a chance for interaction and exchange, which leads to overcoming prejudices and building genuine communities
- Our methodology is a good practice of activities breaking social stereotypes through an active communication and understanding between people
- Empowerment of homeless and low income people to become active citizens of their society
- Diversification of social events for homeless and low income people
- Sharing sensitive personal stories – kneading bread with the feeling, aroma and symbolism of home and family that it creates touches people deeply and helps them easily open to others and offer mutual support
- Team work – participants work in pairs
- Innovative initiative models of solidarity events which bring people together
What problems we solve:
- Lack of diverse social events in which homeless and low income people meet and interact with the local community;
- Socially built stereotypes
- Social exclusion
- Deeply based prejudices in the local community related to homeless and low income people
- The voice of homeless and low income people is rarely heard and appreciated
- Psychological traumas related to social exclusion and economic difficulties
- Sense of loneliness and isolation