A compass for a new beginning

📍 Cordoba (Spain) · July, 2026.

On 29 July, we held the Culture Compass multiplier event in Córdoba, bringing a very special stage for Confórmate to a close.

The event took place at Fundación Don Bosco (Salesianos Social) and brought together around fifteen young people aged between 18 and 30 from different African countries, including Morocco, Senegal and the Republic of Guinea. Their experiences in Spain were very diverse: some had arrived only a few weeks earlier, while others had already been building their lives here for more than three years.

During the session, we presented what Culture Compass is, explained the purpose of the digital platform and showed how its resources can help people arriving in a new country to better understand their surroundings, find their way in everyday life and gradually feel part of the community that welcomes them.

For us, this event was especially meaningful because it allowed the project to meet directly with the people it had been created for. Beyond presenting the results, we were able to see its real usefulness, listen to questions, share impressions and witness the interest with which participants explored the platform.

One of the most meaningful moments came when several participants told us they would have liked to have had a tool like this when they first arrived in Spain. Some also said they would share it with friends or relatives who had recently arrived, or who were planning to come soon. Hearing these words was, without doubt, one of the most rewarding parts of the whole process.

This meeting reminded us that projects truly make sense when they move beyond paper and become something useful for someone. Culture Compass connects intercultural learning, inclusion and digital resources, but above all it was created around a simple idea: to better support those starting a new chapter far from home.

Going back to where it all began to keep moving forward

📍 Dublin (Ireland) · June, 2026.

The second transnational meeting of the Culture Compass project, held in Ireland on 5 June, had a special meaning for us. For the first time since 2019, José Miguel and Antonio were travelling together again to represent Confórmate in an international experience, something that inevitably made us look back and remember the journey we had taken since our first project.

Seven years after those first experiences, both our lives and the association itself have changed in many ways. However, sharing this kind of experience again felt surprisingly familiar: the same excitement, the same motivation and the same pride in continuing to represent something we deeply believe in.

Beyond the official meeting agenda, the moments we shared outside it were especially meaningful. The constant conversations, the need to step away from the pace of everyday life and the time to think out loud led us once again to imagine where we feel Confórmate should be heading.

Between Dublin and the walk along the cliffs of Howth, that spark appeared again — the one that comes every time we sit down to think about new projects: the idea of continuing to grow, perhaps by involving people close to us who have been part of our story, and of continuing to build something that still makes sense for those of us who are part of this journey.

Where we want to be

📍 Quarteira (Portugal) · March, 2026.

On 28 and 29 March, we took part in the Culture Compass training activity held in Quarteira, Portugal, and organised by the host organisation VogalOrizontal. Together with EuroSpeak from Ireland, we shared the work developed so far and presented the project to different stakeholders linked to the initiative.

However, beyond the official programme of activities, this experience had a special meaning for Confórmate. For part of the team, it was the first time we had taken part in an international experience co-funded by the European Union as representatives of an association born from our own concerns and initiatives. After years of voluntary work, meetings, ideas and self-led projects, seeing ourselves there was a feeling that is difficult to describe.

At several moments, we found ourselves looking at each other and thinking exactly the same thing: we made it; we are where we wanted to be. We were not representing someone else’s organisation, but an association we had seen born and grow from the very beginning. Those days also reminded us that behind every online meeting, every shared document and every invisible task, there is a common goal that eventually takes shape thanks to joint work.

And, as always happens in this kind of experience, the conversations outside the official agenda ended up being just as valuable as the planned activities, helping us get to know each other better and continue building connections that we hope will last beyond this project.

An alliance built on shared values

📍 Cordoba (Spain) · May, 2026.

During the development of Culture Compass, an opportunity arose that fits naturally with the values of our association. Thanks to APIC Córdoba from Andalucía Acoge, we joined the STOP RUMORES strategy, an initiative aimed at promoting coexistence, challenging prejudice and building a more inclusive society.

From the very beginning, we found many points in common between this initiative and our way of understanding education, social participation and support for people in vulnerable or underrepresented situations. Joining this strategy allows us to strengthen collaboration with organisations in our local environment and continue building networks based on shared goals.

Beyond becoming part of the network, this experience reinforces a belief that has been with us from the start: the most meaningful changes happen when different people and organisations work in the same direction.

Walking towards a new stage

📍 Camino de Santiago (Spain) · August, 2024.

When we received the resolution for the Culture Compass project, we were in a place that is hard to forget. After months of work preparing the proposal, much of the team involved in its development was walking the Camino de Santiago when the news arrived.

The joy was immediate. Beyond the satisfaction of seeing our work recognised, we shared the feeling that something was changing. For the first time, Confórmate was taking on the coordination of an international project, opening up the possibility of exploring new forms of growth and collaboration.

As we looked at each other while continuing to walk, we understood that the news meant much more than the beginning of a project. We felt that a new stage was opening for the association: an opportunity to keep growing without giving up what had made it begin in the first place — friendship, curiosity and the desire to build things together.

COVID TALKS: When stopping is not an option

📍 Lockdown · May, 2020.

After the impact of our first project, #BotasSolidarias, the pandemic caught us in the middle of creating a new solidarity initiative for the summer of 2020. The project consisted of a route through different parts of Spain, where the aim was to involve local volunteers in collecting waste from beaches and natural environments. With the arrival of lockdown, the project suddenly came to a halt.

Faced with the impossibility of leaving home, we looked for a way to stay connected with the people who had followed us so closely the previous summer. That is how COVID Talks was born: a series of visual-format interviews in which participants answered questions related to managing that exceptional situation.

During this stage, we spoke with a wide range of people, including Julia Figueroa, Spanish judoka; David Ruz, school director; José Luis Munuera Montero, professional football referee; and Antonio Chamorro, social educator and pedagogue. This experience allowed us to stay active at a time of general disconnection and to gather reflections that helped us face the situation we were living through from a different perspective.

#BotasSolidarias reaches Casa Ankelba after days of uncertainty

📍 Holeta / Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) · July, 2019.

After several days trying to resolve the situation from Holeta, we found ourselves facing a complex scenario around the arrival of #BotasSolidarias. The customs authorities requested different checks to ensure that the material would not be used for profit, which led to a long and uncertain process marked by multiple administrative procedures.

Communication with the outside world was very limited and internet access was practically non-existent, which made the situation even more difficult to manage.

As the days went by, the efforts intensified, with constant journeys between Holeta and Addis Ababa and the submission of documents issued by different local organisations and collaborating institutions. The process moved slowly and in a context of great uncertainty.

Finally, after several days of work and negotiation, we managed to unblock the situation and ensure that the material reached Casa Ankelba. The distribution among the children happened immediately and spontaneously, in an atmosphere of enormous excitement that gave meaning to everything we had gone through before. That moment gave us a lesson that stayed with us throughout the whole experience: the importance of remaining determined when a project is truly connected to a purpose.