Father Lebbe
Father Lebbe
"The chineese nation is the most polite on earth. Politeness in China plays a crucial role since millenium.
The social life is governed by rites whoses shadings are so refinded that they are hardly available for a Western.
Respect thoses rites was considered as one of the highest human values."
(Interview with Vincent Thoreau)
Film Vincent Lebbe from PLACET on Vimeo.
http://kotcarrefour.be/go/en/who-are-we.html?start=4#sigProGalleriae4f4ade91c
The project
“CARREFOUR” project: What is it?
A place where Belgian and foreign students live under the same roof;
A philosophy inspired by Vincent LEBBE (cf. historical background)
An open window on the world that emphasizes interaction and guarantees that a welcome is extended to others;
An invitation to engage in intercultural communication in the realization that every human being is responsible for making the world a kinder and warmer-hearted place to live in;
An action that helps everyone to become more integrated into tomorrow’s world, both in Belgium and elsewhere.
A solidarity that unifies and brings people together while respecting differences.
A hostel offering comfortable accommodation and where everyone contributes to running it on a daily basis.
To what is each student committed?
To putting the 'Carrefour experience' into practice on a daily basis;
To making Carrefour a relaxing and light-hearted place to live in;
To contributing to fostering a harmonious atmosphere;
To promoting one’s own culture and making efforts to familiarize oneself with the culture of others and showing respect for it;
To making others a party to one’s academic project while voicing the hopes and concerns central to its realization;
To devoting a proportion of one’s time to meetings and activities;
To ‘giving a hand’ with the domestic duties involved.
From where do “Carrefouriens” come?
From the four corners of Belgium,
From every corner of Europe,
From the world as a whole.
For instance, in the 2010-2011 academic year, Carrefour that accommodated 23 nationalities. Everyone, be it from Asia, Latin America, Africa or Europe, concluded that it had been a profoundly enriching experience predicated on caring and sharing.
Charter
1. Carrefour is a place where people live, interact, exchange ideas and pool their energies.
2. Cultural differences. Respect must be shown to students subscribing to very different religious, philosophical and political convictions. Conceptually, such differentiation must be recognized as a source of intellectual wealth.
3. Mutual respect, learned every day, is the cornerstone around which to generate understanding.
4. Dialogue is the key to any authentic relationship. It is essential to keep a listening ear to discover the cultural wealth underpinning others’ comments.
5. Making life in Carrefour a warm-hearted place demands that everyone give a hand with essential daily domestic duties and ensure that their behaviour does not impact adversely on either other Carrefouriens or the neighbourbood.
6. The daily anxieties and concerns of others should be identified and treated sensitively. Special attention should be paid to problems related to the need to complete academic projects successfully.
7. Everyone comes with Carrefour with a pre-determined project set out in his-her statement of purpose. It may be spelled out more clearly during the year and students are free to implement it. Any additional initiative spearheaded during the year will be welcomed.
The NPO
Carrefour is a non-profit-making organization (NPO) subordinated to achieving the objectives laid down at the time of its formation:
Striving to ensure that people of all cultures or religious denomination in Europe and other continents interact, exchange and pool their energies.
In keeping with standard practice in every organization, Carrefour requires classical management tools: a General Assembly (GA) and a Board of Directors (BD). It is a requirement dictated by the realization those committed to driving the entity forward need to beempowered if they are to attain the aims enshrined in the Memorandum and Articles of Association and do so as efficiently as possible. Whereas it is a legal requirement, it falls far short of what students and residents living in Carrefour would require if they are to accept accountability for their future and make their aims a reality. However, options taken by the GA and BD are irrelevant unless they are endorsed by both students and residents alike. Ultimately, they are the people who will be called upon to convert their aspirations into feasible working practices. In a word, they are the “carrefouriens”. Seen in that light, it is an ongoing challenge to find a formula that will maximize involvement. The part played by each one needs to be clearly defined, be it for those serving on the BD who, in conjunction with the GA recommends the long-terms guidelines or, on a day-to-day basis, for those who spend a short period of their lives living in Carrefour.