Reception centers are like modern towers of Babel. Between the walls of the centers, words in Urdu, Pashtu, Arabic, Albanian and Wolof weave together in the air, giving birth to a unique melody.
The center of Woluwe Saint Pierre is a reception and orientation center, the first place where these young boys live in Belgium when they start applying for international protection.
It’s also the first place in Europe where they can start building a new routine, a new group of friends and acquaintances.
Getting to know each other it’s not easy though, especially due to all these language barriers. Through our activities we try to find and develop common universal languages to get to know each other and create bonds among the boys of the centers, us and the volunteers of SB.
The atelier led by Art en Ciel was one more step forwards in building these bridges: by introducing the youth to different artistic techniques, the art teacher encouraged them to create their own booklet, in which everyone told his or her own story.
On that day art was our common language. Watercolors, collage and paint were our vocabulary. And we all left knowing the others a little bit better and in a very colourful way.
Written by M.F.
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