CENTRO LAICI ITALIANI PER LE MISSIONI

description of organisation

CeLIM (Centro Laici Italiani per le Missioni), born in 1954, is a non-governmental organization recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union. It is a part of the federation Volontari nel Mondo - FOCSIV and CoLomba (Cooperazione Lombardia). The main objective of CeLIM is to permanently transform a community, transferring professional and economic skills using interventions of a finite duration through development cooperation projects sending volunteers abroad and in Italy through activities of global citizenship education.
The organization works in Africa and the Balkans, through the work of international volunteers and in collaboration with local agencies and staff managing projects of development cooperation across a number of fields: educational, social and healthcare, energy and microcredit.

1)Educational - In Italy CeLIM, through skilled educators of CeliMondo, works with children, adolescents, teachers and educators on issues such as global citizenship, knowledge of self and others, human rights, migration and environmental sustainability, encouraging interaction and stimulating "best practices" that are transferred from the local context into the global one.
The global citizenship approach is a perspective that looks at the world as a unique and varied dimension, constantly changing, that is nourished by wealth and knowledge of all people. The global citizenship education aims to develop the awareness of each person on his role within the community in relation to behavioral patterns, consumption and action, so that the new generations are the protagonists of the future as actors of good practice.
CeLIM perseveres in the belief that education and training are fundamental elements of citizenship and democracy, equality and freedom. For this reason CeLIM is committed to the creation of schools and vocational training centers in places where these services and facilities are lacking or are insufficient, in countries where young people need the right to education and the future to be available to them. For the same reason, also in Italy CeLIM organizes training courses for migrants, occasions of information and awareness-raising open to all citizens and, for over 20 years, manages activities of global citizenship education for schools of all levels, which deal with themes of interculturality through participatory courses and workshops.
The areas in which CeLIM operates with its courses of global education are Milan and its province, Voghera in the province of Pavia and Conegliano in the province of Treviso.

2)Social and healthcare - CeLIM has for more than 50 years paid particular attention to agricultural development in order to support local communities to produce better and more, so as to fulfill the immediate need, but more than anything to allow them to emerge from an economy of subsistence and achieve food self-sufficiency.

3)Energy - CeLIM has developed specific expertise in the renewable energy field, such as sources of sustainable development also from the environmental point of view. Thanks to the experience acquired in cooperation with qualified professionals, local authorities, universities and companies, CeLIM has begun to spread and put into practice renewable energies, by way of opportunities for training, employment and protection of the territories.

4)Microcredit - Microcredit is a valuable tool to combat poverty: education and the provision of micro-loans to start small businesses for those subjects so-called "non-bankable" because they fail to provide the guarantees required by banks helps hundreds of people living in conditions of poverty and marginalization to improve their economic situation and their living conditions. CeLIM has invested in this tool already in the late 90s, applying it in different contexts in the Balkans and in Africa.