The school of good will

Mediation, participation and training are the three words highlighted on the Eicascantic website (Espai d'inclusión i formación Casc Antic).

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
04 June 2023 Sunday 05:07
52 Reads
The school of good will

Mediation, participation and training are the three words highlighted on the Eicascantic website (Espai d'inclusión i formación Casc Antic). This organization specializes in imparting language skills (Spanish and Catalan) and social support to Barcelona's immigrant population to help them integrate and enter the workforce.

Eica was born from the Association of residents of Ciutat Vella in the early eighties as an adult school for the newly arrived population of Andalusia and Extremadura, which was mostly illiterate. During all these years, Eica has been adapting the programs to the new needs of the neighborhood and in 2001 it changed its name to Eiscascantic.

"The project for adults that we are currently developing came about in the late nineties, when it was detected that the immigrants were from outside Spain and did not know our language, which is why Spanish classes were started," explains Martí Ferrer, coordinator of the organization's social care project. "At the beginning of this century, it began to be seen that in adult classrooms there were also minors, who needed a more comprehensive training, not only in terms of Spanish and Catalan, but also in mathematics, social , preparation for job placement, etc.", adds Cristina Domingo, coordinator of the project for young immigrants.

The courses they teach last only one term: "It is difficult for adults to devote more time to study, because they either work or are looking for work, while for young people we recommend continuity, as if it were a school year", he says sunday "Each term around 300 students sign up for morning or afternoon courses and on the day of registration around 20 or 30 are always left out. This shows that we are doing well, but the offer is limited" in the building (Comerç, 42), which they share with other associations.

The limitation of the number of courses is not only due to the space, but due to the lack of staff to teach the classes, since Eicascantic has only seven professionals on the payroll, and the rest, around 50 at the moment, are volunteers. "They don't come every day to do their subject, but they are required to commit to a term. Sometimes we even have to do more classes ourselves, because we don't have enough volunteers", says Cristina. Martí clarifies that "managing so many volunteers is complicated and, despite their eagerness and generosity, they are not professionals and this makes the training of the students precarious".

This organization is financed by public aid and private donations. "There is a mixture of different realities for the students and some cannot even pay for the material we give them, which is their own", explains the coordinator of the youth project, who joined the organization six years ago to do university internships when he was studying in the second year of Primary Education. Like Martí Ferrer, although in his case he was studying to be a social worker.

"I am struck by how people who are sleeping on the street or who live in poverty come every morning polished and on time to learn. In the winter, a boy arrived frozen and disguised himself by sticking to the radiator. We offered him coffee and asked him if he needed anything, but he didn't want to talk," remembers Cristina. "Many are ashamed and it is difficult to detect their real situation. Faced with the will they demonstrate, there is a lack of opportunities", laments Martí.

Precisely talking to the students - adults and minors - outside the classes some time ago they detected that there was a need to create a new project: that of mediation or social intervention. An accompaniment to advise on legal and management issues. "In the beginning it was attention only for those who went to the center -says Ferrer-. But it spread by word of mouth and we opened it up to everyone, they even come from outside Barcelona because we serve them as long as they need. And during the pandemic, a new need arose, that of IT help to teach how to do procedures online". The mediation project is perhaps the most complex of all that Eicascantic develops, since in some cases gender violence has been detected and the victims are attended to with the help of a lawyer and a psychologist.

Hafida Oujba was born in Morocco. In 2018, newly arrived in Barcelona from Huelva, she signed up to learn Spanish and Catalan. He then needed the help of Martí Ferrer as a social mediator and has been working at Eicascantic for five months. "I open the classes, receive people and help as a translator - explains Hafida in precarious Spanish-. I really like what I do." Ferrer intervenes: "A Colombian and a Venezuelan also collaborate with us. His vision is interesting. They connect very well, because before they were all on the other side".