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Pamplona international seminar "Childhood, Youth and Social Exclusion" : interview with Jon Etxeberria Esquina

What general benefit can you already get from this seminar ?

First, we are quite satisfied with the level of participation: In a context of crisis and in a particularly difficult moment in obtaining visas, we managed to gather 25 persons from 19 different countries that were each able to finance their own trip. Moreover, 120 people of various areas took part in the Open Days and we also received various economic and logistic supports so that all that is made possible. With all this, and with a satisfactory overall organization, we can consider that the reflections shared were very interesting, there were moments so that people can meet and exchange, and that the work of the coordinators of the International Network of Street Social Workers could be used to strengthen our structure. It was also a step towards the Forum of Brussels which will gather in October more than 400 educators from around the world, in order to produce recommendations which will be presented to the European Parliament and Commission.

What important questions/aspects, according to you, were discussed on days 15 and 16 June?

We believe many participating educators take time to think and build theories based on practice. Proposals and ideas are usually based on relationships with people, on experimentation and absence of prejudices. There is thus no particular dogma to defend, just to improve the practices. We can list some topics that were mentioned during those days: the challenge which the crisis supposes, the need to implement and expand the forms of non-formal education, to realize a social education based on the rights of the person and not on her/his problems or symptoms. Talking about education, is talking about politics with a capital P and that is what it is about: talking about inequality, poverty and wealth, not feeling guilty for someone going through a difficult situation while having a systematic reading. We talked about the practices that we should try to have with people, trying to help them on the basis of the relationship and respect, not discrimination or morals. We also note that the rights of children and young people are not insured, it is worth investing in them, that the crisis cannot be a pretext, we must be self-critical, we must learn how to present what we do in the shade, and organize ourselves in pervasive networks that have become if not interesting, something vital.

What ideas or conclusions can you get out of what was said at the "Civican" ?

- We must promote happiness and speak more about the rights rather than risks, problems or symptoms.
- The non-formal education, the street education with vulnerable people (at risk of exclusion,...), is partly an invisible work . But we must learn to tell it by respecting the confidentiality of their stories while explaining and highlighting these processes.
- The crisis will last long for some people. We need to demonstrate the "profitability" of the prevention programs, and actions that promote and protect children. And in addition to the productivity of the persons involved, the non-formal education must be on the agenda as it is for school.
-The difference between countries and between socio-economic contexts is significant. These are not the same things to come into play and injustices are not equals. But we clearly acknowledge that the challenges are identical, that we can all learn from each other, that the social and educational processes are changing, that they come and go, and that globalization makes us much more permeable and vulnerable. We also point out the difficult situation of some colleagues who receive threats and are being hampered in the development of their profession.

Why was it important ?

It was important for the abundance of voices and experiences, for the availability of the participants, for the desire to interconnect and to act together, by the variety of countries, by crossing professional stories, because in a complex context (restrictions and more people at risk of exclusion because of the crisis) it became urgent to get together, think together and try, through sharing with each other to improve the work we've been doing.

What did the foreign participants bring to this seminar and the work developed by the local professionals ?

As we said, in the context of globalization which is ours, the processes are similar everywhere. The social patterns, the trends of psychiatrization of childhood, the estimation of excluded populations, the treatment of symptoms and not so much the rights… Without a doubt, I think the foreign educators make their contribution by sharing their different professional stories, other ways of thinking, other eyes, new solutions, terrible situations with enormous possibilities and often the same things said in other languages: and this translation provides us with new information. The network has provided us with air, oxygen, optimism, and a place : the world...

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