Press release

Drawing peace between Agrate and Iraq
The project by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per, financed by the Municipality of Agrate Brianza, which brought urban art to young people in Iraq and Italy, has come to an end. Tuesday 30 May the final event.

Monza e Brianza, 29 May 2023 - The final event of the project "Drawing peace between Agrate and Iraq", realised by the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per (UPP) and financed by the Municipality of Agrate Brianza, will take place on Tuesday 30 May at 4.30 p.m. at the "Sulè Centre" in Agrate Brianza (MB).

The project, which took place in the summer of 2022, aimed to build bridges of solidarity between Italy and Iraq through art: 4 urban art workshops were offered to girls and boys from Sulaymaniya, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan, at the 'Tobacco Factory' youth centre with which UPP has been collaborating for some time, and where trainer and designer Simone Rossoni in art 'Vermi di Rouge'(https://www.vermidirouge.com/) accompanied the project.

In Lombardy , on the other hand, a workshop was proposed in November 2022 to the male and female students of the Enzo Bontempi Secondary School (MB), with which UPP has been collaborating for years on educational projects for pre-adolescents; and one in May at the 'Sulè' Multipurpose Centre for young people in Agrate Brianza, managed by the Sulè Onlus Association, held by the trainer Marzia Formoso, in art 'Miss Nais'(https://www.facebook.com/MissNaisArt).

At the end of the workshops, which involved 30 boys and girls in Iraq and 30 in Italy, six murals were made on the theme of building peace and bonds of solidarity between the two countries.

On Tuesday 30 May at 4.30 p.m. at the Sulè Centre, in Via Don Luigi Cantini in Agrate Brianza (MB), there will be a final event of the project, during which the murals created in Iraq and Italy will be shown, and a small photographic volume will be distributed, telling the story of this journey of peace and building bridges between young people from different countries, but united by the same dream of a better future.

Un Ponte Per has been present in Iraq since 1991 and in Sulaymaniya it has been running various activities since 2016: the projects developed are of various kinds: from educational and peacebuilding projects, to reproductive health, to projects for the preservation of the artistic or environmental heritage, to projects for job placement and vocational training. In Agrate Brianza, the partnership with the Association dates back to 2019, when Un Ponte Per developed non-formal education workshops at the Sulè Youth Centre.