ABUSUAN

The intercultural centre ABUSUAN is a place where cultures and traditions from different countries meet and melt together. Its many activities are born from the goal to originate a new society and a new language capable of expressing, building and meaning the new and different forms of coexistence and inter-ethnicity. By promoting conferences, concerts, shows, literary and film meetings, educational and training activities, ABUSUAN aims, among its main objectives, to inform and learn about the realities of other peoples, cultures, histories and conflicts that go through it. ABUSUAN is a landmark, a point of reference for information and training services in the field of international migrations. Its aim is to promote integration, conflict resolution through cooperation and awareness of human rights, valuing the products of interculture. This is why Abusuan carries out its activities pointing at two main directions: the work in the field of knowledge and information: the promotion of cultures through the organization of multi-ethnic festivals of music, cinema and theater (festival Soulmakossa, Balafon film, and festival of peoples, and Bari in jazz); the work in the field of training and school: organization of training and refresher courses for teachers and cultural operators, education activities to cognitive decentralization, laboratories of analysis and criticism of mass-media communication. Within the framework of an overall strategy aimed at supporting the social and cultural integration of immigrant citizens, also pursued through the research for synergies between the different institutional components operating in the territory, the Abusuan Centre has joined an initiative promoted by the Prefecture of Bari, on the subject of interculturality, by signing in January 2005, together with other public and private entities - including the Apulia Region, the Province of Bari, the Municipality of Bari and the University of Bari - a Memorandum of Understanding, which aims at promoting, thanks to the municipalities of the Province of Bari, the activation of intercultural centers as places of exchange and discussion pointed towards both native and immigrant citizens. Moreover, the Abusuan Centre also set up an help desk for the social, health and cultural integration of immigrants, according to the criterias of the regional regulation n.4 of 2007.