PEACE BREAD PROGRAM and OVENS FOR PEACE
“I was impressed by the fact that I could meet with people that I can’t meet in my everyday life. And here I could even make bread together with them. This totally changed my understanding of team work! Because until we touched the dough, I didn’t know the person who I worked with. We were different as ethnicity and culture. For me it was like going to a foreign country, to the States for example, and working with a foreigner.”
“Each time we come, we meet with new people, we make new things and we speak about something new. Today, for example, we spoke about our dreams. We create stories and other things. This is very interesting – that we together with other people who think in way a different from us, we ultimately tell a common story and to even draw it.”
How can our methodology benefit your work:
- A never seen before methodology which meets refugees and migrants with the local population of the hosting country under the motto ‘Around bread we are all EQUAL! ‘
- A therapeutical approach to complex psychological issues
- Making, baking and breaking bread together as an universal symbol of making peace and going above the fear of the unknown
- Mixing migrants with the local population and creating opportunities for interaction and cultural exchange, which leads to overcoming prejudices and building genuine communities
- Our methodology is a good practice of activities decreasing the levels of racism in society due to a better understanding of people and cultures
- Empowerment of migrants and refugees through facilitation of bread making sessions to become active citizens of the local society
- Diversification of social events in which migrants meet and interact with the local community
- Overcoming cultural barriers caused by different religious beliefs, different ways of thinking and behavior
- Provision of a sheltered space for migrants where they can engage in creative activities, spend some time outside their daily environment and improve their language and social skills.
- 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;
- Team work – participants work in pairs
- Improvement of children’s language skills through creative activities in which migrant children learn Bulgarian in a fun and informal way
What problems we solve:
- Lack of diverse social events in which migrants meet and interact with the local community;
- Limited access to events with local community representatives as a result of lack of information, protected and safe environment, transportation opportunities, language barriers, etc.;
- Cultural barriers caused by different religious beliefs, different ways of thinking and behavior.
- Deeply based prejudices and stereotypes in the local community related to migrants
- The voice of migrants and refugees is rarely heard and appreciated
- Psychological traumas related to war conflicts
- Not enough practice of the local language