To initiate our cooperation, we invited our Tunisian partners in “Éspace des Arts” in Sfax, Tunisia, to visit Norway. We invited them to our little village in Norway where we have our headquarters.
Sfax
Sfax is a major port town situated in east-central Tunisia on the northern shore of the Gulf of Gabes. There are about 955,421 inhabitants, in an area of about 7545 km2. The main economic activities of Sfax are industries, agriculture (olive and olive oil, nuts), fishing (largest fishing port in Tunisia) and trade (import-export).
The island of Kerkenah off the coastal town of Sfax also has an ancient boatbuilding tradition that is maintained. This is a precise coincidence with the old boatbuilding traditions in Bindal.
Bindal
Bindal is a municipality in Norway with a small population, with plenty of space. There are about 1,580 inhabitants, in an area of about 1,000 km2. The municipality is located on the coast in Nordland county, and has long fjords and high mountains. People work in the public sector, at the door factory Bindalsbruket, as farmers and with fish farming. Many commute to workplaces far away, at facilities or in the North Sea (oil platforms). There are 3 schools, with a total of almost about 200 students.
For hundreds of years, the “Bindalings” have built boats on their farms. They have collected materials in the forest and built their wooden boats in a tradition that dates back to the Viking Age. Since this ancient art of building boatsis in danger of extinction in Bindal, Éspace des Arts and Peacepainting wanted to include this in our activities.
Our partners from Éspace des Arts: Moncef Messedi, Khalaf Mohsen and Abdelaziz Hassairi at Terråk School in Norway.
We invited the managers of Éspace des Arts to exchange experiences and get to know each other. One goal we have together is to organize an exchange between Norwegian and Tunisian youth.
Just like Éspace des Arts, we are looking for organizations that function as bridge builders for peace and friendship. In that context, meaningful meetings between young people, is a natural tool. Very quickly, today’s youth will be adults and involved in making decisions for humanity - in small and large contexts. We therefore want to work with young people for a world where we respect each other with love.
In cooperation with Éspace des Arts we created Peacepainting workshops at Terråk School in Bindal.
Tunisia has recently gone through The Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, which led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The artist from Éspace des Arts brought art works representing the current situation. These were exhibited at Bindal City House and opened by the Major of Bindal.
The visit coincided with the Norwegian National Day, and we created an exhibition consisting of the Tunisian art works and the art works created by pupils at Terråk School.
We had a great first exchange with Éspace des Arts and look forward for our next exchange which will take place in Sfax in December later this year.