In the summer of 2025, the “Crossed Horizons” experience took place at the Elin Association in Ceuta, bringing together a group of 26 young people from different African countries and Spanish cities in Rabat, together with a team of volunteers from the Association.
The community of Vedruna Sisters of Ceuta accompanies this missionary project through the Association, which it founded together with other volunteers, and of which it currently assumes its general coordination.
In the interview on the occasion of International Migrants Day, Sister Paula Domingo of this community points out how essential values are cultivated in Elin: family life expressed in welcoming in equality, awareness and the defense of human rights. Because we firmly believe that all people share the same dignity and the same rights.
Today we share a summary of the article they have published on their blog, as well as testimonials from some of the participants. You can learn more about the experience through these links:
This summer, from the association Elin, we have organized and carried out an experience of inter and transcultural encounter beyond the border, in which we have managed to generate relationships, meetings and learning among a group of young people from different backgrounds, cultures and realities.
The objective of this meeting experience has been to provide a space in which young people from different realities could share, learn and be trained in relation to cultural diversity as a richness and the importance of transculturality through exchange, interaction and meaningful experiences with young people from other realities, from other horizons.
In this sense, during one week, through the various activities and dynamics programmed, the participants had the opportunity to deconstruct borders and approach other realities from the desire to learn and share their personal richness.
During the 6 days of meetings in Rabat, we had training sessions in the mornings aimed at introducing and putting into practice concepts such as cultural diversity, interculturality, transculturality and anti-racism through dynamic and participative sessions.
In the afternoons, we held several workshops aimed at promoting exchange and the creation of bonds among the participants, based on the equal encounter, coexistence and always giving and receiving from the conviction that diversity is a richness that should lead us to live transculturality. We also carried out language workshops in which the young women from Spain taught Spanish and, in the same way, the young people from Rabat taught French and Arabic in private and individualized classes in which we continued to work and strengthen the bonds created.
After the language workshop, the participants were divided into different creative workshops of dance, music, theater and audiovisuals. Throughout the week, these groups worked on creating an artistic representation that was presented at the final meeting on Friday, and in which they had to capture in some way the experiences and values that they were living during that week.
Testimonials
What I am enjoying the most this week is that I can share with more people different from me, I am learning dances in the dance workshop that I thought I would never be able to do, and I am very happy. – Lucía, Spain
What I liked the most in Elín is that we share a lot and there are no differences: everybody laughs with everybody, we mix, we learn a lot about the future, many other things between us. – Jessica, Democratic Republic of Congo
What I like most about Elín is that I am sharing a lot with people I didn’t know before, and they are giving me a lot of information. For example in the classes, I am learning a lot about them… Also in the theater, because I am in the theater group, I am having a great time, and in the morning in the trainings I am learning a lot about the culture of others. – Vanesa, Spain
What has really impacted me and logically helped me is the fact that I have learned to relate to new people. I think it’s really a very relevant background in the world we live in. I have learned what culture is and how we can enrich ourselves. For me, that’s the best thing, and what I have enjoyed the most: I have learned about other cultures, languages and traditions. – Efraïm, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Diversity as an opportunity for enrichment
We were able to experience firsthand the opportunity to meet, interact and create bonds of friendship with people with a diverse cultural, linguistic and social background, to get closer to new cultures and, above all, to embrace cultural diversity as an opportunity to learn, exchange and grow together.
Through “encounters without borders” such as this one, Elin raises awareness and makes visible the potential of sharing cultures and adopting a transcultural perspective with which to embrace the richness of others in order to achieve a society in which all people can live together based on intercultural respect, dignity and coexistence.
We want this meeting and the experiences and relationships generated to continue reaching more people, generating more similar experiences from which we can continue growing, learning, exchanging and living transculturality.
Elín Association
