by Harika Ronse

Anthropologist Margaret Mead once explained that a broken femur found at an archaeological site was the first sign of civilisation. A healed bone shows that someone who was injured had been cared for, protected, and nourished long enough to recover. Solidarity, from the very beginning, is exactly that: taking care of one another.

Even today, it is solidarity that allows us to rise above our divisions — our origins, our beliefs, our social status. It brings us back to what is most universal in us: our shared humanity.

To be in solidarity is to resist the forces that try to pit us against one another, that claim that some people are worth more than others, that some deserve support while others should be excluded.

In Etterbeek, this solidarity is expressed in our daily actions, in the attention given to the most vulnerable, and in our commitment to building a shared future.

In times of crisis and uncertainty, we must remember that we are the heirs of that first gesture of mutual aid.

By caring, protecting, and including, we remain worthy of what we are: human beings.

Together, we are stronger.