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Italian and Senegalese students in dialogue on  migration and professional choices for the future they dream

Italian and Senegalese students in dialogue on  migration and professional choices for the future they dream

Italian and Senegalese students in dialogue on  migration and professional choices for the future they dream

The program “Unbounded Dialogue” for 2025-26

Unbounded Dialogue is an ongoing educational program on the theme
of migration and future choices carried out for secondary school students in Italy and Senegal.
Its goals are:

raising awareness of the immigration phenomenon and the labour market through correct and updated information
Have students learn about migration from the testimonies of those who have experienced it
Generate a video dialogue between students in Dakar and Rome on the theme of choices for the future.
encouraging creative opinion expression about immigration through group working and public speaking.

+16.000

Students
trained

+120

Schools
participated

3

Countries
involved

For the year 2025-26, Unbounded Dialogue will be subject to an impact study supported by “Fondazione Migrantes – CEI”.

This program is supported by the Diocesan Missionary Center of the Vicariate of Rome and the Senegalese Ministry of Education, and is carried out in cooperation with the Academic Center for Educational and Career Guidance (CAOSP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), MigDev, and Caritas Dakar. If you are interested in promoting the project in your school network, please contact:
Erminia Florio – cell: +39 340 266 5402 | e-mail: sophia@sophiacoop.it

The Educational Path

DATA LABORATORY

Sophia’s team, in collaboration with CAOSP Dakar, presents the reality of migration, the living conditions of migrants abroad, and the educational and professional opportunities offered by Senegal in the classroom, using data, statistics, and figures.

MIGRANT TEACHER

In cooperation with Caritas Dakar and MigDev, the students meet in class the migrant teacher for the project, which is trained to best express how and why he left his country to emigrate to Europe. During the meeting, students have the possibility to ask questions about his story, his life in a foreign country, and his values.

INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE

Senegalese students discuss the topics covered during the training sessions. Senegalese students video exchange ideas with Italian students about migration, their aspirations for the future, and family and social pressures.

TEACHERS TRAINING

Eventually, the expert from Sophia also trains the teachers of the local schools to host themselves the lecture on the key numbers and figures of the immigration phenomenon. During the training course, the local teachers are given all the tools and information to educate the students independently of Sophia’s project.

FINAL EVENT

After this lecture, Sophia provides students with support to elaborate a project work based on their changes in the perception of immigration. The project work might be (but is not limited to) videos, photos, poems, songs, namely students with their imagination transform the contents received from the program. Finally, Sophia organizes a public event where students present their project works to other students, teachers, politicians, and workers involved in the non-profit sector. This year the final event will be simultaneously held in Rome and in Dakar.

Unbounded Dialogue

Methods & Research

Sophia’s educational projects are built according to the proprietary methodology Information and Knowledge for Change (IK4C) developed during several years of practice “in the field”. The methodology aims to change the perception of the migration phenomenon in three steps:

Information:
the students learn about migration from people who have migrated in another country.

Knowledge:
the students discover the real magnitude, data and statistics of the migration phenomenon concerning the specific area they belong to and the worldwide perspective.

For Change:
the students are given the opportunity to express their opinions and ideas about the migration phenomenon following the interventions and present them before experts and influential personalities on the matter.

Sophia’s IK4C is subject to multiple impact studies conducted in collaboration with the University HEC of Montréal. In June 2021, Sophia has won the international prize “Economy and Society” of Centesimus Annus Pro Pontefice Foundation – Vatican City and will conduct the research: The effect of information campaigns on students’ intention to migrate: Evidence from Senegal. Below you can find the research project and the other researches carried out.

Sophia Social Enterprise

Sophia Cooperative is a non-profit Social Enterprise born in Rome (Italy) in 2013 to foster the freedom to emigrate both raising awareness of the migration phenomenon and facilitating the integration process in Italy. Inspired by the theme of discernment and the Encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” by Pope Benedict XVI, four young people created the Sophia Cooperative, where Italians and migrants work together. Today, Sophia is composed of 13 associates aged between 24 and 38 from Italy, Africa, and Asia. In cooperation with the Migrantes Foundation – CEI, Sophia Cooperative has developed programs to raise the awareness of the migration phenomenon and has so far reached over 10,000 students aged between 11 and 19 since 2013 in Italy, Senegal and Guinea. In addition, funded by the Episcopal Conference of Italy (C.E.I.), Sophia follows the integration process of numerous migrants in Italy from the Francophone Western African area (Guinea, Mali, Senegal).

Sophia’s ever wider WE: Creating Value through Integration

International Projects Team

Marco Rupoli – President

Mor Amar – Teacher

Erik Conte – Educational Programs

Erminia Florio – Research

Davide Tittarelli – Teacher

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Partners & Supporters

Contacts

For any additional information or question please
send an email to sophia@sophiacoop.it
or call +39 340 266 5402

Our main office is at the following address:
Via Alfonso di Legge 49, Rome 00144 Italy
Sophia Cooperative Society – Social Enterprise
Via Alfonso di Legge, 49 – Rome (RM) 00143 ITALY

VAT number: 12361831006 | REA number: RM – 1368479 | Registration number in the Cooperative Register: A226985
+39 06 504 2459 |
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