There are many who want to redefine philanthropy for it often has a unidirectional meaning: there are those who give and those who take...

For the Josefa Foundation, this paradigm shift is at the heart of our mission.

Today, many conflicts divide peoples, and refugees are a painful reminder of this: they endure physical suffering; are forced out of their homes; or sometimes pay the price with their lives. Iraq, Syria, Kenya, Central African Republic, Lampedusa, and many other lands, remind us of this every day.

At the heart of these news stories, there are realities crying out to us: such as those of refugees who have had to, one day, leave everything behind, with the hope of finding a hospitable welcome in another land. What is our viewpoint? What is our testimonial? How should we move, or shift our positions, in order to turn this reality around and build something new together, whereby there is no giver and taker? What kind of "living together" are we going to build?

These questions are asked by the Josefa Foundation, which works to create, in the heart of the city of Brussels, an area of hospitality, the Josefa House, so as to welcome, house and support refugees and people (like you and me) who are not affected by forced migration.

But why frame these questions in terms of a "shift"?

So far, it seems that the issue of migration and integration (or even assimilation) is generally discussed in quantitative and problematic terms and not in terms of a common path, of a co-integration where everyone recognises each other on the threshold of an evolution, of a renewed togetherness, lastingly peaceful.

The migrant is not the other, who is facing me, whom I "reach out to", but me, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Along with other institutions, Josefa asks us to remember that migration is, above all, human and that, free or forced, it concerns a man, a woman, a child, a family, a community, in short a face or a look.

Therefore, by way of proposal or inquiry, it seems that following the leaders of many religious faiths, as well as many politicians, in cooperation with the many stakeholders working for a new European approach on migration, the challenge is to promote the opening of hearts, encourage a significant change in perception, and then in attitude. Therein lies the real opportunity for Josefa. Josefa, with its potential, wants to contribute.

The stakeholders and partners of the Josefa Foundation therefore want to set up the Josefa House by 2016. Since late 2013, the Josefa Foundation and the Carmel of Saint-Joseph have been working together within the Josefa mission in order to live and support the Josefa project.

Josefa (www.josefa-foundation.org) therefore invites all of us, all of you, to take part in its mission, as part of our migration and as a real opportunity to undertake the future together.