Lena Friblick

"We must create faith in the future instead of fear of the future"

- At Botildenborg, we’re using farming to build a future that’s sustainable — ecologically, economically, and socially. Over the years, we have developed a number of businesses where we make use of food to achieve that.

- My basic philosophy is that we must start doing, not just talking. We must dare to test things out and see how it goes. It can be about creating jobs for people who are far from the labour market, investing in local and urban food production, or shaping encounters and conversations between people.

- In my experience, the big challenge is that we live in our small bubbles. That segregation has increased compared to when I was growing up. Today, a lot is about where you live, where the children should go to school, what they should do in their free time. The 70s and 80s were definitely not perfect, but today there is a greater distance between the different socio-economic cultures and, for example, between Limhamn and Rosengård. Our goal is to reduce that distance between people.

- We often talk about meeting places and how important they are, but all too often they are meeting places for a specific group. At Botildenborg, we try to break that pattern. With our mix of young people, people in job training programs, business people, and students, we try to create interactions between people from diverse backgrounds.

- An encounter has to be firmly established from both sides. It's not just about people new to Sweden needing to meet Swedes, but the other way around as well. We need to work on diversity in the Western Harbour just as much as in eastern Malmö. And it's striking how much can come from these encounters! It’s so exciting to talk to someone who has just come to Sweden and get an idea of ​​who they are as a person.

- My work is most rewarding when the house is full of people and we manage to reach out and make a difference. When there’s people coming and going, and lots of conversations and laughter, I feel that people are really meeting and learning from each other. Then, I feel that we’re actually doing something that matters.

- My hope for the future is that we will all become better at opening doors for each other and focusing on our similarities instead of differences. Basically, we all want the same thing: security, a good place for kids to grow up, good health, and a stable economy. And we all have to help in order to get there, that's the only way we can build a society characterized by faith in the future instead of fear of the future.