ARCI Aperi-dinner to support Mimmo Lucano & membership renewal
ARCI’s new year began “con il botto”!
Last Saturday we met at Elzenhof for the typical ARCI aperitivo. Old members could renew their card for 2021/22 and many new members joined us – we are looking forward to seeing you at the next activities! You can still request your brand new ARCI Bruxelles membership card at this link or during one of our activities.
ARCI means community and we launched a strong message about solidarity: together with Casi-UO, Emergency Belgium, Apriamo i Porti Bruxelles, Invisibili in Movimento, Filef and Cultura contro Camorra we participated to the #Riacenonsiarresta days.
What happened on Saturday? Many people safely gathered at Elzenhof (Av. de la Couronne 12) to enjoy a drink and some Italian food, while discussing the shameful sentence to Mimmo Lucano, Riace’s mayor. We started with an overview of the situation and we continued with a discussion about the criminalisation of welcoming practices in Italy and Europe, with the participation of the Belgian organisation “Solidarity is not a Crime”.
The situation: On October 2nd, Riace’s mayor Mimmo Lucano was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a 700.000€ fine. This sentence attacks both Mimmo Lucano and the so-called “Riace model” for integration. We believe that a new type of welcoming is possible. Jointly, we strongly condemn the criminalization of solidarity and the spread of values that do not represent us. We started a fundraising which will either cover advocacy actions to support Mimmo from Bruxelles, or will be directly sent to the supporting committee in Italy.
ARCI Bruxelles would like to thank all the associations involved in this event and all the participants who joined us!
And this is not over, more similar events are coming! Stay tuned!