Pão a Pão | Association
Associação Pão a Pão is an NGO that promotes the integration of refugees and immigrants through training and employability. We value people's knowledge, experience and culture and these are the elements we use to facilitate inclusion and create more diverse, vibrant communities.
Many things we do take place around the table. We share a meal to celebrate a special event. We share a meal when we have good news to tell. We share a meal to get to know someone better. We share a meal to be with whom we want to be with. A meal makes us closer to one another.
That is why Pão a Pão (PAP, Bread by Bread) turns food into an exchange of experiences, knowledge, and cultures, and a path to inclusion. We know how important food is in building and structuring our identity. It makes us feel at home and it says who we are and where we come from.
In Mezze, an Arabic food restaurant, Middle Eastern refugees are given training and jobs. We use the skills that many women and young adults bring from their home countries and give them the tools so that their work - and their identity - are valued and shared with their new community.
Food is a way of building a more open and tolerant society, without distrust towards those who come from another place.
We believe that there is no "them" or "us". Only “all of us”.