Objectives
News 
From Ideas to Action: Migration and Human Rights Festival Edition III
Daniela Cervinschi - LADO Cluj
27 June 2013
The idea of the MIDO Festival came to us in 2010, when we were starting to implement integration projects of the International Organization for Migration (OIM) Romania and of the Timisoara Intercultural Institute.
At that time LADO Cluj was trying to break into immigrant communities, to make itself known and heard and to inspire confidence. We tried to come up with various plans and strategies, but we forgot the fact that we must not decide for communities. Thus, the best idea was to invite community representatives for a cup of tea and a free discussion. The findings were revealing for LADO Cluj. Communities have proposed organizing themed movie nights, discussion clubs, intercultural evenings and other recreational activities. LADO Cluj reconsidered its plans and came up with the idea of Migration and Human Rights Festival by offering agreeable activities to communities to promote their cultures, and not least to unite the resources of the two integration projects for better results.
It brings me immense pleasure that both the communities and the LADO team gave credit to the MIDO Festival, for it has had three consecutive editions.
The third place took place in four days, May 23-26 2013 and benefited from the support of 20 partners, collaborators and sponsors. Here they are: The General Inspectorate for Immigrants, the International Organization for Migration (OIM) Romanian Office, the Timisoara Intercultural Institute, the Cluj-Napoca City Hall, the County School Inspectorate, Balcescu High School, the Language Rich Europe Network (LRE), Central Park Casino, La Gazette Restaurant, the Indigo Indian Restaurant, the Islamic and Cultural League Romania, Cluj Branch, the Jerusalem Romanian-Arab Cultural Association, the Syrians’ Forum in Romania, Moroccan-European Association, Cluj Intercultural Awareness Organization (CIAO), the Association of Palestinians in Transylvania, the Latin American Community, the Initiative Bessarabian Group Cluj, the Palestinian Association in Transylvania, Evol Arts Organization, the GentleMen`s Show team. This year's festival was attended by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Romania through Mr. MUHAMMAD SALEEM, consul, who, apart from actively participating in the activities, had unexpected surprises for us: he gave two wonderful gifts to the LADO and IIT teams: shawls and traditional vases from Pakistan.
The idea of the Festival was to involve as many communities in the organization and implementation, so that all the communities we collaborate with were invited to the working meetings, but also institutions or other organizations that wished to get involved. So we formed a team of 18 people (volunteers, community members, intercultural mediators) that were more or less involved in organizing the event.
During the MIDO Festival there were 6 activities that highlighted the ideas of communities and partner institutions. The Basics of Islamic Culture workshop was proposed and organized entirely by the Romania Islamic and Cultural League, Cluj branch. It was a very interesting workshop because participants had the opportunity not only to hear but also to experience the culture and religion of Islam. Women were asked to wear the hijab and all participants were asked to remove their shoes before entering the workshop room, which was actually the place of prayer. We learned general notions about Islam and the Arabic language. Daniel Barnutiu, one of the organizers, drew everyone’s attention when he confessed that he is actually a Romanian citizen who embraced the Muslim religion for he found fundamental principles in this religion after which to guide his lives.
At the local seminar "Foreign students right to work. Opportunities and obstacles in Cluj-Napoca", we had the pleasure of having next to us Mr. Lucian Muresan, the representative of the Immigrations Services in Cluj County and Mr. Daniel Don, representative of the County Employment Agency. The following issues and solutions have been raised:
a) Where can RTTs, family members and students, enroll to be counseled and to find out the vacant positions in Cluj-Napoca. Solution: Currently, there are 1900 registered positions at AJOFM. The RTT members and students are asked to register on the AJOFM platform. There is a call center whose staff is made up of career counselors who contact the persons in the AJOFM database when they find a suitable job for them. There are also job fairs and INFOPAGE.
b) Do citizens from the Republic of Moldavia who obtain Romanian citizenship but only have a Romanian passport and residence abroad, require and ID when hiring? Lots of Bessarabian students could not get hired because people asked for their IDs. Getting an ID is difficult because they have to find a person willing to include them in the space. Solution: Since they have Romanian citizenship, they also have the rights and obligations of Romanian citizens. There is also the solution of the temporary ID which you get faster and simpler. The seminar attendants did not understand why employers require this.
c) Can RTT family members receive unemployment benefit? Solution: The AJOFM representative response was yes, but they need to be registered in the AJOFM database.
d) How many hours can students work and what does hiring them imply? Solution: the representative of the Immigration Service stated that hiring students is the simplest thing. There is a list of acts he can put at the applicants’ disposal to get an employment authorization. Students can work 4 hours a day. Employers do not the procedures and consider it a cumbersome process, but nothing can be farther from the truth.
The idea for the "Intercultural Caravan" came from a conversation with Mr. Lucian Muresan - Cluj Immigration Service. He told me that mostly pupils should be involved in our activities, they should be familiarized with what LADO is, with our periodicals and of course with the work of the foreign communities in Romania. Then I had the opportunity to attend the Language Rich Europe project implemented by the British Council, which focused on promoting languages in the community. I thought it would be appropriate to implement a pilot project to promote the languages of immigrant communities in schools, thus the Caravan idea was born, which was very successful. The students were all ears to the life stories of mediators. Alex Jacho taught the children how to say hello and thank you in Spanish, he told them about the wonderful landscapes of Ecuador, and how people are. Samir Moukhliss told them how beautiful Morocco is and how delicious their dishes are, Ali Shah told them how Pakistanis are and what they have in common with Romanians and Daniel Barnutiu familiarized them with Arabic, writing each letter of the alphabet and explained their phonetic transcription.
The Movie Night took place with the support of the Indian and Pakistani community, there were a few movies about the Muslim, Pakistani, Indian, Palestinian, Syrian and Moldavian culture, history and religion.
The Painting and traditional objects exhibition was a real success. Over 80 people admired the exhibition and we were happy when every curious Romanian came with his family to see what has happening at the exhibition. The following countries attended the exhibition: Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, India, and the Romania Islamic Cultural League, Cluj branch.
The Intercultural Evening marked the end of the Festival which gave an opportunity to communities to express their culture through dance, song and traditional dishes. So, in an interesting background, on Cetatuia Clujului, at the La Gazette restaurant, we all got together to celebrate interculturality. There was a guitar recital by Luis Angel Sanchez Avila in Mexico, a Conservatory student, traditional Moldavian songs, a Cuban salsa dance by Daniel Gonzales from Cuba and his wife. There were also Arabic dishes and the multicultural cake. Alex Jacho, the intercultural mediator, kept his word and this year, together with Daniela, his wife, baked a more impressive cake than last year.
This year’s MIDO Festival had some simple ingredients: lots of work, love for people and calm. For next year, the MIDO Festival will be rebranded, and the major task of organizing it will be transferred to the communities, LADO being just a support structure.
My dream is that the MIDO Festival be organized not only in Cluj. Dear colleagues, partners, mediators and collaborators, I encourage you to put our resources on the table and organize a national MIDO Festival!
At that time LADO Cluj was trying to break into immigrant communities, to make itself known and heard and to inspire confidence. We tried to come up with various plans and strategies, but we forgot the fact that we must not decide for communities. Thus, the best idea was to invite community representatives for a cup of tea and a free discussion. The findings were revealing for LADO Cluj. Communities have proposed organizing themed movie nights, discussion clubs, intercultural evenings and other recreational activities. LADO Cluj reconsidered its plans and came up with the idea of Migration and Human Rights Festival by offering agreeable activities to communities to promote their cultures, and not least to unite the resources of the two integration projects for better results.
It brings me immense pleasure that both the communities and the LADO team gave credit to the MIDO Festival, for it has had three consecutive editions.
The third place took place in four days, May 23-26 2013 and benefited from the support of 20 partners, collaborators and sponsors. Here they are: The General Inspectorate for Immigrants, the International Organization for Migration (OIM) Romanian Office, the Timisoara Intercultural Institute, the Cluj-Napoca City Hall, the County School Inspectorate, Balcescu High School, the Language Rich Europe Network (LRE), Central Park Casino, La Gazette Restaurant, the Indigo Indian Restaurant, the Islamic and Cultural League Romania, Cluj Branch, the Jerusalem Romanian-Arab Cultural Association, the Syrians’ Forum in Romania, Moroccan-European Association, Cluj Intercultural Awareness Organization (CIAO), the Association of Palestinians in Transylvania, the Latin American Community, the Initiative Bessarabian Group Cluj, the Palestinian Association in Transylvania, Evol Arts Organization, the GentleMen`s Show team. This year's festival was attended by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Romania through Mr. MUHAMMAD SALEEM, consul, who, apart from actively participating in the activities, had unexpected surprises for us: he gave two wonderful gifts to the LADO and IIT teams: shawls and traditional vases from Pakistan.
The idea of the Festival was to involve as many communities in the organization and implementation, so that all the communities we collaborate with were invited to the working meetings, but also institutions or other organizations that wished to get involved. So we formed a team of 18 people (volunteers, community members, intercultural mediators) that were more or less involved in organizing the event.
During the MIDO Festival there were 6 activities that highlighted the ideas of communities and partner institutions. The Basics of Islamic Culture workshop was proposed and organized entirely by the Romania Islamic and Cultural League, Cluj branch. It was a very interesting workshop because participants had the opportunity not only to hear but also to experience the culture and religion of Islam. Women were asked to wear the hijab and all participants were asked to remove their shoes before entering the workshop room, which was actually the place of prayer. We learned general notions about Islam and the Arabic language. Daniel Barnutiu, one of the organizers, drew everyone’s attention when he confessed that he is actually a Romanian citizen who embraced the Muslim religion for he found fundamental principles in this religion after which to guide his lives.
At the local seminar "Foreign students right to work. Opportunities and obstacles in Cluj-Napoca", we had the pleasure of having next to us Mr. Lucian Muresan, the representative of the Immigrations Services in Cluj County and Mr. Daniel Don, representative of the County Employment Agency. The following issues and solutions have been raised:
a) Where can RTTs, family members and students, enroll to be counseled and to find out the vacant positions in Cluj-Napoca. Solution: Currently, there are 1900 registered positions at AJOFM. The RTT members and students are asked to register on the AJOFM platform. There is a call center whose staff is made up of career counselors who contact the persons in the AJOFM database when they find a suitable job for them. There are also job fairs and INFOPAGE.
b) Do citizens from the Republic of Moldavia who obtain Romanian citizenship but only have a Romanian passport and residence abroad, require and ID when hiring? Lots of Bessarabian students could not get hired because people asked for their IDs. Getting an ID is difficult because they have to find a person willing to include them in the space. Solution: Since they have Romanian citizenship, they also have the rights and obligations of Romanian citizens. There is also the solution of the temporary ID which you get faster and simpler. The seminar attendants did not understand why employers require this.
c) Can RTT family members receive unemployment benefit? Solution: The AJOFM representative response was yes, but they need to be registered in the AJOFM database.
d) How many hours can students work and what does hiring them imply? Solution: the representative of the Immigration Service stated that hiring students is the simplest thing. There is a list of acts he can put at the applicants’ disposal to get an employment authorization. Students can work 4 hours a day. Employers do not the procedures and consider it a cumbersome process, but nothing can be farther from the truth.
The idea for the "Intercultural Caravan" came from a conversation with Mr. Lucian Muresan - Cluj Immigration Service. He told me that mostly pupils should be involved in our activities, they should be familiarized with what LADO is, with our periodicals and of course with the work of the foreign communities in Romania. Then I had the opportunity to attend the Language Rich Europe project implemented by the British Council, which focused on promoting languages in the community. I thought it would be appropriate to implement a pilot project to promote the languages of immigrant communities in schools, thus the Caravan idea was born, which was very successful. The students were all ears to the life stories of mediators. Alex Jacho taught the children how to say hello and thank you in Spanish, he told them about the wonderful landscapes of Ecuador, and how people are. Samir Moukhliss told them how beautiful Morocco is and how delicious their dishes are, Ali Shah told them how Pakistanis are and what they have in common with Romanians and Daniel Barnutiu familiarized them with Arabic, writing each letter of the alphabet and explained their phonetic transcription.
The Movie Night took place with the support of the Indian and Pakistani community, there were a few movies about the Muslim, Pakistani, Indian, Palestinian, Syrian and Moldavian culture, history and religion.
The Painting and traditional objects exhibition was a real success. Over 80 people admired the exhibition and we were happy when every curious Romanian came with his family to see what has happening at the exhibition. The following countries attended the exhibition: Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Pakistan, India, and the Romania Islamic Cultural League, Cluj branch.
The Intercultural Evening marked the end of the Festival which gave an opportunity to communities to express their culture through dance, song and traditional dishes. So, in an interesting background, on Cetatuia Clujului, at the La Gazette restaurant, we all got together to celebrate interculturality. There was a guitar recital by Luis Angel Sanchez Avila in Mexico, a Conservatory student, traditional Moldavian songs, a Cuban salsa dance by Daniel Gonzales from Cuba and his wife. There were also Arabic dishes and the multicultural cake. Alex Jacho, the intercultural mediator, kept his word and this year, together with Daniela, his wife, baked a more impressive cake than last year.
This year’s MIDO Festival had some simple ingredients: lots of work, love for people and calm. For next year, the MIDO Festival will be rebranded, and the major task of organizing it will be transferred to the communities, LADO being just a support structure.
My dream is that the MIDO Festival be organized not only in Cluj. Dear colleagues, partners, mediators and collaborators, I encourage you to put our resources on the table and organize a national MIDO Festival!
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