The first meeting with the community about the Aminata Cultural Center took place on the 5th of December in Gandiol and was organised by the local NGO Hahatay are laughs of Gandiol. The meeting was attended by youth associations from the area, students of the Liceo de Tassinere, the director from this center and from the primary school of Pilote Barre, teachers from this school, representatives of women associations of Pilote, farmers, fishermen, and the ¨notable¨ the people of the town. We wanted it to be as heterogeneous and participatory as possible!
After an introduction about the project (objectives, managing personnel, philosophy of intervention…) the drawings prepared by Nerea and adapted by Thaisa and Ana were presented.
The objective of the meeting was to make a brainstorming about the building, the spaces and materials, and also about the future uses of the center.
Many proposals we had not thought about came out! Women suggested to give literacy classes, youth suggested sport classes, and for the kids, school support courses. The farmers suggested to do orchards.
The ¨notables¨ of the town supported the ideas and made themselves responsible of spreading the message to promote ownership among the community. The youth said that they would also support the communication and visibility of the centre.
After this first round of interventions, Hahatay presented a series of images of furniture made with recycled materials that constitute garbage nowadays and that are a burden to the environment, such as tires, scrap wood from the boats, nets, etc. We proposed the idea to make recycled furniture all together and thus furnish the center with our own hands. People were surprised but they reacted enthusiastically to the proposal.
Finally we encouraged everyone to think about what had been said for further discussion at future sessions, with the most advanced planes to be presented.
