The very first Soliris Village on the Place de la Bourse

On Wednesday 18 September, the soliris.brussels platform organised the first edition of the International Solidarity Village in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Several Brussels diaspora organisations and municipal administrations, members of the platform, collaborated on this beautiful public event. Their common goal? To arouse the curiosity of Brussels citizens and passers-by about the solidarity actions they organise, on their own or with one another and/or with their international partners.

Brulocalis, the association of the City and municipalities of Brussels, was also present at the village. Its contribution to the actions of the Soliris platform is indeed important and is promoted in the best possible way.

On the associations’ side, Amnesty International also had a stand, as did Oxfam Magasin du Monde – Bourse / Wereldwinkel – Beurs. Present with its customised cargo bike, the shop offered curious visitors some fair trade coffee produced in Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo) by the Rebuild Wowen’s Hope cooperative which is very active in agro-ecology, the defence of women’s rights and women’s socio-economic development.

Four people at stalls, with posters and crafts on display — Municipal managers of International Solidarity of the City of Brussels, Anderlecht and Molenbeek-Saint-Jean

The local International Solidarity departments manage a wide range of activities: twinning’s, youth exchange projects, post-humanitarian disaters reconstruction projects, (cultural, health, training, etc.) projects run by diaspora organisations based on their territory, solidarity festivals and other events. These services take advantage of soliris.brussels to exchange, to coordinate and to support each other in common areas of work.

As for the diaspora organisations, over 70 of them are currently members of the platform and form a diverse and dynamic network of players involved in solidarity projects, sometimes linked to women’s rights, sometimes to entrepreneurship, training, cultural celebrations… Projects that contribute to the well-being of people from migrant backgrounds here in the Brussels Region, and of their relatives and communities in their homeland.

Four circular photos of smiling people manning stands — From top to bottom and from left to right, Fédération Internationale de la Diaspora Afar (FIDA) asbl, See Me-Refugees asbl, The Food Bridge asbl, Femmes d’Alger et d’Ailleurs (FAA) asbl

On the soliris.brussels website, you can find (in French or in Dutch) the presentation page of each member (associations and municipalities). Do not hesitate to contact them if you wish to support them or to collaborate on a project.

Soliris.brussels is a bilingual (French-Dutch) platform that supports, federates and mutualises international solidarity and global citizenship education initiatives by Brussels municipalities, diaspora organisations and civil society, in partnership with Brulocalis and with the support of Brussels International.

Since 2020, the CNCD-11.11.11 and Echos Communication, comanagers of the platform and financially supported by Brussels International, have been implementing activities such as exchanges of information and good practice, training, workshops, networking, funding possibilities and coaching.

Two girls inform people about the village of Soliris. A girl holds a microphone. — Chérine Layachi, Campaigner – Diasporas & Soliris.brussels project at CNCD-11.11.11 (left) and Camélia Bendoduh, Project Manager – Belgium at Echos Communication (right)

Two men pose for the camera — Geoffroy Clerckx, Acting Director External Relations at Brussels International (left), and Khalid Charef, Head of the Cooperation and International Relations Department at the municipality of Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode (right)