The Plat­form Citi­zen Bel­Re­fu­gees, born of a great momen­tum as a volun­teer in 2015 to respond to the cri­sis of the home, today begins a new page of its his­to­ry. Its Board of direc­tors would be rene­wed, with the arri­val of new pro­files incur­red and the appoint­ment of a new duo to its co-chair : Ber­nard Of Your and Fran­çoise Kema­jou.

In less than ten years, Bel­Re­fu­gees has grown from an infor­mal net­work of citi­zens uni­ted to a cen­tral player in the home in Brus­sels. It now has more than 300 workers·workers ’ employee·es, mobi­lizes thou­sands of volun­teers in Brus­sels and Wal­lo­nia, and has become the second lar­gest ope­ra­tor in brus­sels in terms of accom­mo­da­tion, care and gui­dance, with a capa­ci­ty of near­ly 1 200 beds and has imple­men­ted seve­ral local offices in the Wal­loon region (Hai­naut, Bra­bant-Wal­lon, Liège, …)

The asso­cia­tion has also coor­di­na­ted a wide array of accom­mo­da­tion citi­zen, mobi­li­zing near­ly 10,000 fami­lies volun­teers through Bel­gium and offe­ring more than 200 000 over­night stays to people in exile. It pro­poses a paral­lel hard­ware help direct dis­tri­bu­tion of clo­thing, meals, and sur­vi­val gear), lan­guage courses and com­pu­ter science, as well as spaces for mee­ting and lis­te­ning, as The Cof­fee World, open to all and all.

The lea­der­ship change comes two depar­tures dee­ply symbolic.

First of all one d’Alexis Des­waef, lawyer, tire­less defen­der of human rights, for­mer pre­sident of the League of Human Rights, cur­rent vice-chair of the Inter­na­tio­nal Fede­ra­tion of Human Rights, and major figure of the asso­cia­tive land­scape in bel­gium. Present from the ear­ly stages of Bel­Re­fu­gees, he hel­ped anchor a gover­nance was both rigo­rous and acti­vist, at the ser­vice of the rights of the people exi­led. His com­mit­ment, and his righ­teous­ness, and his constan­cy will have left a las­ting impres­sion on the his­to­ry of the organization.

Other depar­ture mar­king, ofAdria­na Cos­ta San­tos, co-foun­der and out­going chair, whose invol­ve­ment right from the gene­sis of the non-pro­fit orga­ni­za­tion has sha­ped the DNA and the poli­ti­cal line of Bel­Re­fu­gees. Resear­cher, the actress wor­ked in the field of advo­ca­cy, she has coor­di­na­ted the ove­rall device hos­ting a citi­zen, as well as the foun­da­tion and mana­ge­ment of sha­red accom­mo­da­tion. In par­ti­cu­lar, the crea­tion of the Sis­ter’s House, a place of accom­mo­da­tion of the bene­volent and adap­ted to the course of women exi­led, which offers sup­port pyscho-medi­co-legal and social global.

This relay switch opens the way to a new dyna­mic. Ber­nard Of Your, for­mer gene­ral Dele­gate to the rights of the child, joi­ned Bel­Re­fu­gees as co-chair. Edu­ca­tor, isla­mic scho­lar and foun­der of seve­ral orga­ni­sa­tions in the youth sec­tor, he dis­tin­gui­shed him­self by his constant com­mit­ment in favour of migrant chil­dren and by its dis­course, bold against the deten­tion of minors in a clo­sed centre.

At his side, Fran­çoise Kema­jou, admi­nis­tra­tor-dele­gate of the asso­cia­tion For Soli­da­ri­ty, will also co-chair. Out­come of the non-pro­fit world, senior poli­cy of inclu­sion, diver­si­ty and equa­li­ty, it is a stra­te­gic thin­king groun­ded in the real and reso­lu­te­ly tur­ned towards the trans­for­ma­tion of society.

The new com­po­si­tion of the Board reflects the will of Bel­Re­fu­gees to com­bine conti­nui­ty, expe­rience and open­ness to new hori­zons. To the administrator·zon current·the – Flo­rence Gérard, Michel Visart, Gau­thier Debock – add now :

• Hania Ouh­naoui, a lawyer spe­cia­li­zing in immi­gra­tion law, as well as the right to equa­li­ty and non-dis­cri­mi­na­tion, which is cur­rent­ly legal advi­sor to the League of human rights and as assis­tant to the ULB ;
• Eric Hus­son, a social wor­ker for over 25 years, enga­ged in the fight against the wan­de­ring, inequa­li­ty and social exclu­sion in Brus­sels. His field exper­tise, his know­ledge of the volun­ta­ry sec­tor and its com­mit­ment to an uncon­di­tio­nal accep­tance to rein­force the link bet­ween gover­nance and rea­li­ty on the ground ;as well as the two new co-chairs, Ber­nard and Fran­çoise Kemajou.

’ This new team com­bines ins­ti­tu­tio­nal expe­rience, field exper­tise, and poli­ti­cal thought. It embo­dies our values : citi­zen­ship, soli­da­ri­ty, jus­tice, and hos­pi­ta­li­ty. In a context of migra­tion poli­cies increa­sin­gly hos­tile, it is toge­ther that we will conti­nue to stand up for a wor­thy recep­tion for all , ‘says Meh­di Kas­sou, direc­tor-gene­ral of the Plat­form Citi­zen BelRefugees.

With this new gover­nance, Bel­Re­fu­gees confirms its desire to remain a col­lec­tive force, free and com­ba­tive, in the ser­vice of the people in exile.