The Red Cross is an association committed to interculturality. Are you working on any project to foster the integration of immigrants into the city? Yes, this year we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Darwuka language training project for immigrants. That project was the beginning of our programme of care for immigrants, which tries to provide newcomers with tools so that they can integrate into our society. We are now offering language training, knowledge of the place, training for work, etc. The programme is complemented with the Promotion of Coexistence, which is working with society as a whole to create scenarios which are more receptive to knowledge and acceptance of others.

When you tell people about these intercultural projects, what is their reaction?
That depends on the specific project and on the person. In general, the task we are carrying out is widely accepted by society; nobody is against teaching someone a language or helping them to get to know the host society better. There may be more reticence when what we are trying to do is to explain the foreign culture to people here, or when we talk about coexistence in general; then we locals are more wary of any kind of change.

Do you consider that society is receptive to activities of this kind? Do you think there has been an evolution in society’s way of thinking in this respect?
In general yes, although people may be more reluctant to speak at the beginning. We always get to the nub of the question eventually. Around this whole issue we often find ignorance. Talking is the best tool for working with interculturality.

Last year the Red Cross worked with the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya on the organisation and presentation of the exhibition Another Way of Looking. What was the purpose of that exhibition?
Another Way of Looking searches for a personal reflection on the phenomenon of immigration. The aim is for the visitor to look at the phenomenon from another point of view. Moreover, to see that behind the phenomenon with a capital P there are people with particular stories and that those stories are not so different from the ones Spanish people lived through when they emigrated in the last century.

What is the visitors’ reaction? Have the aims been achieved?
It is a very short exhibition, which makes it easy to explore and to think about, and it has a very clear message. It was complemented with a numerandum workshop so that it would be more active. Many visitors were surprised when they left because they were expecting an exhibition that tried to destroy myths or talk about the positive aspects of immigration, but the exhibition does not assess immigration, it starts by accepting it as a universal event; the history of humanity is the history of migrations.

Do you have any other forthcoming project related to interculturality?
All of them. In a society like ours, interculturality has to be part of all our projects. We have to tend increasingly towards incorporating that line transversally. The task in hand for the entities is no longer to incorporate interculturality into our projects, but to do it in our organisations so that we can continue to be a reflection of society.