Heks-Lunchkino

The churches in Davos, in cooperation with the aid organisation Evangelical Church Switzerland (HEKS/EPER), are once again presenting a lunch cinema this year. A documentary about the innovative refugee policy in Uganda will be shown.

In northern Uganda, around 200,000 refugees from South Sudan live side by side with their Ugandan neighbours. The zones of the refugee settlement are hardly distinguishable from the surrounding Ugandan villages. Refugees and host communities share schools, markets, health centres – and everyday life.

Uganda has been pursuing this progressive refugee policy since the 1990s. The "open door policy" grants refugees not only protection, but also access to a piece of land, work and education. Uganda was able to count on international support for a long time.

But how sustainable is this model at a time when international aid funds are constantly decreasing and support is falling away? And how can coexistence succeed in places where resources are already scarce?

This year's HEKS/EPER film by director Rahel Grunder seeks answers from the local people, in Bidibidi. He accompanies a Ugandan landowner who is involved as a "peacemaker" and shares his land with refugees – because he was once a refugee himself. It shows how a play about a stolen goat creates mutual understanding. And he takes us with him to the "BidiPads" workshop, in which 60 Ugandan and refugee women sew reusable sanitary pads together and thus gain not only an income, but also friendships, self-confidence and new perspectives.

A touching, encouraging film about humanity and the power of togetherness – and about what becomes possible when we meet each other with openness.

Followed by a discussion with Walter Schmid, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Heks

Lunch offered from 12 noon in the Kulturplatz, from 12.30 start film