From professional life to family life and interpersonal relationships, the COVID-19 crisis has not spared any part of our lives. One of the biggest phenomena that has not escaped this crisis is human mobility. Indeed, since the beginning of this crisis, human mobility and international migration have been seriously disrupted. Some people have found themselves blocked at the borders, some have not been able to leave their country of origin, others have not been able to return home after having spent a long time abroad. This has also affected international relations and the involvement of migrants in global development policies. While more and more initiatives are being taken on social networks to connect migrant people with their countries of origin and dispersed family members, few are addressing the educational and intercultural role that a platform can play in this time of pandemic. This is what ZAMAN offers as a multilingual, user-friendly, and simple-to-use platform with audio and visual information and instructions for registration.
Among the techniques aimed at bridging the distance developed among migrants and keeping them close to their countries of origin is the ZAMAN Community, a new digital social and community platform from PLACE e.V. PLACE is a German organization working to shed light on migrant initiatives for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. PLACE is a space for pan-African networking, education and critical analysis on the issues and challenges of sustainable development in Africa in the context of cooperation between Africa and the African diaspora in Europe. It aims to accelerate, via digital technology, the history of Africa towards a better collective pan-Africanism.
PLACE ZAMAN (or Community in Bariba, a language of Benin/West Africa) is a social platform for meetings and exchanges. It is a virtual space that reduces barriers by connecting people living around the world who strive to maintain ties despite distance. PLACE ZAMAN is also a framework for collective learning, opportunity sharing, and networking, where (un)constructive critical thinking about development challenges is encouraged. The platform aims not only to address diversity but also to make it concretely visible through multilingualism and multiple knowledge.
Among the resources that can be used to interact internationally is video conferencing. Of all the modes of communication, videoconferencing is undoubtedly the one that produces the strongest emotional and affective effects by combining image and sound simultaneously. This is why PLACE ZAMAN, through the PLACE e.V. mother organization, regularly offers videoconference exchange sessions on themes that value cultures from all over the world, especially Africa.
Moreover, the platform offers the opportunity to the immigrant diaspora to have a space of inclusion and discurse from which they can finally raise their voice. Zaman also promotes networking and engagement in disadvantaged and inaccessible areas around the world by publishing initiatives, projects and short messages from several people from these areas. The community is growing daily and currently has more than 300 people around the world.
In addition to highlighting the cultural diversity and networking of actors giving substance to the diasporic web, the interest of the ZAMAN platform is to create a space for open and multi-perspectivist exchanges on the issues of global interdependencies.
Join PLACE ZAMAN here: https://place-zaman.org/login/
By Idoxine AHOUMENOU