The Raindrops program collaborates with the CAS Program of the San Francisco de Paula International School of Seville

The Raindrops Program, through the Project “Youth, Society and Transformation”, is collaborating with the C.A.S. Program (Creativity, Activity, Service) of the International School San Francisco de Paula of Seville. The objective is to develop the skills of their students with creative actions at the SERVICE of society.

Our proposal is divided into two main actions: first, the realization of training and awareness sessions, in order to bring students closer to a concrete reality: youth and migration. Our experience has shown us how important it is to make young people aware of the migration phenomenon and how, from this process, interesting actions of personal and collective transformation arise.

Secondly, we provide advice to volunteer projects within the framework of the CAS Program. These actions respond to specific needs that, from DPC, we have detected and managed as an entity, in order to collaborate in the processes of inclusion of the migrant population in Seville, mainly with young people who are in Spain without their family references.

Since January 2022, we started the sessions with the students of 1st and 2nd year of International Baccalaureate and we will carry them out regularly until the end of the course.  In the sessions held to date, we have invited the migrants who collaborate with us and whom we accompany from DPC. Each of them has shared a very interesting talk that has allowed the students to learn about different migratory realities, the processes of inclusion and provided them with information resources for their volunteering proposals, which are a requirement of their curriculum.

Check in his visit spoke about the “Myths and misinformation about Africa”. It was an interesting dialogue in which the student body was fully engaged in his story and experiences.

What does it mean to be a black person in Seville? Kone expressed this through his daily experiences. He shared important information about Islam and migration from his home country. At the end of the talk, there was a reflection with the student body on how to minimize racism in Seville, to which one of the students replied, “Hate can only be defeated with talks like these.”

The realities of migration are very diverse. Although the most common is that people decide to migrate to improve their living conditions at an economic level, for displacement due to war or migration due to climate change, among others… would any person leave their country because they have a different sexual orientation or gender identity?  Alma, who is part of the DPC team, spoke about the reality that LGBTIQ+ people live in many countries where the rights of these people are violated by homophobia. She shared her migration experience due to this circumstance and the process of applying for asylum in Spain.

All these stories provide students with a different perspective on migration, they are informed in a different way than in the media. But, above all, these are moments in which they can develop their empathy and decide to take action on these realities.

We thank the coordinating teachers of the C.A.S. Program, Pedro Pozo and Germán Delgado, and the San Francisco de Paula School, for believing in the work done by the Raindrops Program. This collaboration seems to us fundamental for the youth to develop awareness on the subject of migration and, above all, to be motivated to create proposals in the service of society.

With the “Youth, Society and Transformation” Project, we hope to approach more educational institutions and offer a personalized formation and volunteer plan. Every day we reaffirm our idea that, from educational environments, and with an intercultural pedagogical proposal, the host society can be positively transformed. From Raindrops we will continue building DROP by DROP!