User:Marceladelgado11/Kiwanda

Kiwanda is a co-working space located at 50 Rue de Montreuil in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

Kiwanda is a workspace and events space, bringing together social justice groups and social entrepreneurs under the banner of “interpreneurs”.

Activity
Kiwanda means «factory» in Swahili.

The space serves three main functions. It is at the same time: a co-working space, a meeting space, and a network of "interpreneurs", , ,.

Foundation
Kiwanda was co-founded by the organisations Singa and Coexister in October 2016, ,.

The official opening of Kiwanda took place on 19th January 2017, attended by Singa and Coexister members, a number of external guests, and the deputy Mayor of Paris Jean-Louis Missika, , ,.

Development
During its first three years of activity, the number of residents at Kiwanda doubled.

In June 2018, the organisation Wintegreat joined Singa and Coexister on the Kiwanda premises. The team from organization AIME then arrived at Kiwanda in September 2018.

As well as these organisations, the following SINGA incubateur projects have been developed on site at Kiwanda, ,. Today, different rooms at Kiwanda are frequently rented to individuals, organisations, or external businesses.

Space Organization
Kiwanda is a 400m2, two-storey space, which can be adapted to meet different business functions. There is also a courtyard outside the building, with space for bicycle parking,. The ground floor is divided into three parts. First is the shared space: it has a kitchen equipped with a sink, microwaves and communal crockery and cutlery; as well as sofas and armchairs, and a large table where people can sit and eat together. There is also a water fountain and a coffee machine, along with a shared printer and toilets.

On the same floor, through a door to the side, you will find an area which functions as an ‘open space’ for people to work, with a number of individual desks and chairs and several storage units.

These individual ‘open space’ desks are used by:


 * projects which are being incubated or accelerated as part of SINGA's entrepreneur programme
 * members of the organisation AIME
 * other individuals, organisations and companies who rent a desk.

Finally, the ground floor comprises two meeting rooms each with a capacity of 10 people. These two rooms, named Aquarium 1 and Aquarium 2, can be joined together to make a large meeting room for up to 22 people, called Aquarium entreprise.

Next is the first floor, which is home to the offices of Singa, Coexister and Wintegreat. You will also find on this floor the meeting room “Nautilus”, which has a capacity of six people. This floor is also fitted with small room for making phone calls, as well as two toilets. It also has a room known as «the chill room».

Resident Organisations
There are four main organisations which have their offices at Kiwanda: Singa; Coexister, Wintegreat and AIME.

SINGA
Singa is a movement of citizens which was developed to create connections between new arrivals to a country and their host societies,. In order to achieve this objective, Singa has put in place a number of programmes, for example:


 * Supporting individuals and communities to organise different events which are free and open to all, with the aim of creating spaces to meet, exchange ideas and build relationships ;
 * Singa also has an entrepreneurial programme, which exist to help set up projects designed by and/or for refugees, , , ;
 * Finally, the programme Calm ("Comme à la Maison", which means "To Feel at Home" in English) receives refugees without permanent accommodation - and wanting to share with others in an intercultural environment - and puts them in touch with individuals who are able to host them in their home for a certain amount of time, ,.

Each programme has been created with the same purpose in mind: to create connections between people in different contexts, through a range of different projects.

Coexister
Coexister is a movement which enables young people aged between 15 and 35 to have a positive experience of diversity, and works through 45 groups across France. There are two main objectives at the core of its work: the first is to “ensure our differences can be used for the good to society”; the second is to “deconstruct clichés about religion”, ,. To do so, the organisation organises a number of activities, including conferences, events, and workshops in schools,.

Wintegreat
Wintegreat is “a social start-up which exists to give new life to the professional plans of refugees”. To meet this objective, the organisation is centred around building partnerships with universities and companies, , , , .. Which can then help by offering training and specialist programmes for refugees, , ,.

AIME
The International Association for the Mobilisation for Equality (L'Association Internationale de Mobilisation pour l’Égalité, AIME, in French) is a not-for-profit organisation which was established in France in 2009 by students from HEC Montreal,. The aim of the organisation is to take part in/put in place projects which have the aim of reducing poverty and helping marginalised communities anywhere in the world,. Today, AIME supports 24 local agencies in 11 different countries across Asia, Africa and Central America.

Events and special guests
Kiwanda organises a number of events; for example, in 2018, Kiwanda organised 325 events.

Events organised frequently at Kiwanda include shared lunches and breakfasts, which encourage residents to spend time together. There are also training sessions and workshops organised by Kiwanda or external visitors. For example, Singa’s entrepreneurial programme organises workshops at least twice a month for the incubated and accelerated projects in the programme. Other examples include: intercultural training sessions delivered by Singa, and web-marketing sessions provided by The Machinery, amongst others. Lastly, every other Thursday, residents can enjoy a Sri Lankan meal at Kiwanda, which is prepared by one of the projects incubated under the Finkela programme. Besides these events, since its opening Kiwanda has welcomed a number of politicians to visit.

Examples include (in chronological order):


 * The deputy minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relations with Local Authorities (responsible for the city and its housing), Julien Denormandie came to Kiwanda on 18th March 2019to speak with the organisation Coexister, and to learn more about SINGA's Calm programme ;
 * Najat Vallaud-Belkacem who is, amongst other things, director of the Tent Foundation, visited Kiwanda in December 2018;
 * France’s Work Minister, Muriel Pénicaud came to Kiwanda on 1st October 2018;
 * Leïla Slimani Leïla Slimani visited the premises in May 2018;
 * François Hollande came to visit the incubated projects and residents at Kiwanda on 9th March 2018;
 * Benoit Hamon;
 * Hapsatou Sy;
 * Antoinette Ghul.