Empowering Refugees

Being part of the consortium “Cocagne Haute-Garonne”, AFIDEL’s main workshop is about cooking the local and organic vegetables from the Gardens.

“From the ground to the plate”

Thanks to the gardening activity of the integration projects in “Cocagne Gardens”, the NGO “Cocagne Alimen’Terre” (which means ground food feast) promotes local production at low prices while passing on good practices and knowledge in the food field.

In this context, “Cocagne Haute-Garonne” is offering workshops on the themes : Cooking on a Low Budget and Gardening without means. The idea is to share anti-waste tips, recipes based on local products, learn how to garden on a balcony…

“Eating has no borders and cooking (re)unifies cultures”

As AFIDEL’s aim is to help job seekers into their (re)integration to the (local) labour market, these workshops are even more important to allophones as they are learning french meanwhile attending to the workshops. Learning by doing is the key to make the link between what is called in linguistics, the signifier (a word) and the signified (the meaning of the word).
Besides, as these workshops are a glimpse of the main jobs of the integration projects, learners can also directly apply to the job offers to sign a fixed-term insertion contract (called CDDI in french). It is a contract for unemployed people who face particular social and occupational difficulties.
Then, growing and cooking local and organic vegetables and fruits in the « Gardens of Cocagne » becomes a meaningful life project as both employment and ecological sustainability finally meet.