ICAR Foundation Open Day – 2015, June 29th

PRESS RELEASE

ICAR Open Day event, organized by the ICAR Foundation on 2015, June 29th, was meant to be a celebration of multiculturalism in Romania, where we have indigenous traditions and elements from other cultures arrived with immigrants who have found here a temporar or permanent refuge. We invited everybody to a journey inside some “territories” of migrants’ life, a world full of color and charm, unjustly overshadowed by the more publicized cases that force them to leave everything behind and start from scratch a new life.
Numerous visitors who came to our event had the chance to travel in Za’atari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, through a photo exhibition with exciting stories and a mini-documentary, all made by nine Romanian volunteers back in 2013. Another open door – this time to clothing culture – invited visitors to the world of women in Afghanistan and Burma. There were exhibited costumes of Afghanistan women and a Burma mysterious and complicated bride suit. Between the interesting costumes which we could expose thanks to the generosity of some women living in the Accommodation and Procedures Center for Asylum Seekers in Bucharest, we also sprinkled traditional Romanian costumes, clothing elements of Bucovina and Muscel, to illustrate multiculturalism. All the costumes on display made a worm and pleasant atmosphere with their spectacular colors, meticulous stitching and interesting histories.

On this special day, ICAR Foundation was visited by representatives of migrant communities, beneficiaries of our services, colleagues from other governmental and nongovernmental organizations and people from general public who wanted to approach the world of migrants. They have asked us questions, we exchanged information and tasted traditional Lebanese and Turkish appetizers and sweets.

Before writing down their thoughts and impressions on the event’s notebook, visitors received a souvenir and permanent invitation into the migrants’ world: a notebook with 20 spectacular traditional Oriental cuisine, Asian, Mexican and Romanian recipes.

In order not to forget ICAR Foundation beginnings, we also invited the audience to a journey into the world of former Romanian political prisoners. For those who haven’t found yet what they suffered in communist prisons, we organized a special video projection: “Beyond Torture” documentary about the extermination practices used in communist prison from Pitesti – directed by American journalist Alan Hartwick with ICAR Foundation, back in 2007.

Photo Gallery
A retrospective of the event with pictures and stories can be found on the Facebook page of the event.

The event was organized by ICAR Foundation within the “ICAR – Resource Center and Services for Migrants” project, funded by EEA 2009 – 2014 grants, through the ONG Fund in Romania. More information about the project: migrant.icarfoundation.ro