Project Description

Helping people to help themselves:
“Casa Sankara” flagship project in Italy

The showcase project “Casa Sankara” is located in the south of Italy. This region has to fight hard against the exploitation of migrants in Italian agriculture. The CASA Sankara Associazione Ghetto Out initiative, together with local Italian NGOs, advocates the de-slavery of African migrants. The aim is to free people from the ghettos that have emerged and to enable them to lead a self-determined life again. Around 500 people currently live in a self-built Eco-Village and together they cultivate almost 20 hectares of agriculture.

In December 2020 a team from the caravan visited the showcase project “Casa Sankara” in southern Italy and helped on site. The project has been growing and prospering for 9 years now: the refugees harvest over 200 tons of tomatoes every year and process them further. There is also a cooperative with the few fair trade farmers in the area.

One year after our first visit, in December 2021, we received a Christmas wish from southern Italy: In order to be able to get all employees to the fields on time in the morning, a minibus is urgently needed. So far, Hervé, the head of the project, has done these trips in his small private car, often having to leave at three in the morning. After our appeal for donations, we were actually able to play Christ Child and give Hervé from Casa Sankara the necessary EUR 15,000 for the minibus. Many thanks to all supporters who made this gift possible!

UPDATE March 2024:

We received some interesting news: a company in Oberwart in southern Burgenland that sells old industrial sewing machines has had to close. However, a place still had to be found for the high-quality sewing machines, as they were all fully functional. Otherwise they would have to be disposed of. The Karawanis Caso and Ananda immediately agreed to rescue these professional sewing machines and thus help the Casa Sankara project at the same time. In addition to growing and selling vegetables, Casa Sankara is currently building up a second mainstay, namely textile production. The joy over these eight sewing machines from Burgenland was correspondingly great. However, the logistics were not so simple: the eight sewing machines, one of which weighs 250 kg, had to be transported over 2,000 kilometers to the south of Italy. Thanks to Ananda and Caso’s commitment, we also overcame this challenge and were able to give the flagship project in Italy a boost again.
Thanks to Mr. Guljyas from Oberwart for this extraordinary donation – this way his sewing machines live on and make sense every day!
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“We are concerned that there are such abuses that are reminiscent of slavery in our neighboring country. The initiative has already enabled over 500 people to escape from the ghetto of the harvest workers. ”

PASCAL VIOLO • FOUNDER OF THE CARAVAN