Activism in Ventimiglia - A Base for Kesha Niya

We are a group of motivated people from different parts of the world, from different backgrounds, who met through the grassroot collective Kesha Niya. We want to create a safe living space for us and others, a place to work on and provide aid to people in need. Many of us have been volunteering for nearly four years full time in the grassroots organisation Kesha Niya, which was founded in a refugee camp in Grande-Synthe(Fr) in 2016 as a kitchen with and for other refugee residents. Since 2017 we have been active at the Franco-Italian border around Ventimiglia(It), where we continue to provide humanitarian aid for people in need. keshaniya.org  facebook.com/keshaniyaproject  What do we want to create? In addition to the political work, we want to realize a communal way of living, following our ideals of self-sustainability with horizontal, non-hierarchical organization. For the last three years we have been able to carry on our daily work purely through the collaboration and generosity of private hosts. Those offered shelter to volunteers as well as working and storage space to run our kitchen for Ventimiglia; now we would like to have a base ourselfs, so that we can establish and further our potential as an activist community and our activism in Ventimiglia. We are looking for a spot with convenient proximity to the border: from there we can continue to support refugees and people in need in and around Ventimiglia(It) and Menton(Fr), where migrants have struggled with inhuman conditions for years. Our future home would be a place to carry out our work, building a proper kitchen to provide food for Ventimiglia, creating space to organize our activities at the border, but must also have enough room to provide a safe space for activists. The work we do since years costs a lot of energy, especially without a proper place to operate from, or to rest with some distance to the situation. We have dedicated a large part of ourselves to the work, without sufficient support or time to process, let alone any remuneration. Our vision is to be as autonomous as possible, utilizing renewable energy systems and create a garden, while having structures and buildings independent from other groups and individuals, to secure the aid for people in need in ventimiglia for the coming years. The place would be political and would enable us to work much more efficiently in and around Ventimiglia. What is our objective? We want to implement many projects of individual and communal nature, to refinance the group and space by our own means of production, so as to establish our values and minimize our ecological footprint. The main part is, whatsoever, to aid people in need, living in the streets of Ventimiglia or being pushed back by the french police. We provide food, legal support, information and all necessary aid for people in and around Ventimiglia. To not be able to store food and clothes properly, to not have a well installed kitchen or a proper living situation for volunteers costs energy, tires and keeps us from realising our potential. We want to live without hierarchical organization, actively challenging the racism, sexism, imperialism, and other forms of hierarchy and therefore oppression inherent in todayˋs society. To us this means collaborating mutually to provide for both individual and communal needs, while respecting the environment around us.  We need your support if we are to move forward with this project, to purchase the land itself as well as to install the infrastructure necessary for a group and the work we do. If you like the sound of what we want to create, consider donating to enable our vision to become reality! Thank you for your interest! Love and rage  Kesha Niya Kitchen