From 1 July to 31 December 2016, training courses adapted for the needs of 157 persons under international protection, as well as various informative activities with a purpose to promote inclusion of this target group in the Latvian society were provided within the project “Support Activities for Persons under International Protection" carried out by the Society "Shelter "Safe House"".
In total, six groups consisting of representatives of seven countries: Syria (109), Afghanistan (21), Iraq (12), Eritrea (9), Tajikistan (3), Belarus (2), Russia (1) were taught about Latvia in the socio-economic inclusion training program. There were in total 5 classes for each training group during which participants could gain knowledge of Latvia, its state system, history, culture and traditions, practical information about Latvia and services, information about integration into the society, non-discrimination principles, communication and religious differences, decision making, sense of time, housing market, employment facilities, education system and education acquisition opportunities, available leisure activities, healthcare system, social security network and social support system in Latvia. During the classes children were also included in training by organizing separate groups for them.
To get an in-depth picture of the history of Latvia and Riga, 60 representatives of the target group attended the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation and the National History Museum of Latvia.
The specialists of the Society "Shelter "Safe House"" provided a possibility to 115 participants of the training course to get to know possibilities of acquiring various professions by organizing five educational visits to the training centre "BUTS" and one visit to the company "Senā klēts" and "Jaunais A salons".
During the entire period of educational activities, communication with the participants of the socio-economic training programme was provided by the Tigrinya, Arabic, Kurdish, Tajik and Dari language experts.
To support the persons under international protection which are illiterate or which have serious difficulties to write or read, the first five of 10 planned informative videos-animations on the following topics: documents, security, money, transport, seasons have been made within the framework of the project. The videos, as well as more practical information on the refugee integration useful for the project target group and the Latvian society are available on the website www.beglis.lv/www.refugees.lv in six languages - Latvian, Russian, English, French, Arabic, Dari. The information is renewed and updated on a regular basis in collaboration with the governmental and municipal authorities, institutions involved in the Action Plan implementation and the most active NGOs of the field.
During the course of the project, a special 27-page informative material for the children "Hedgehog Friends" is developed, and it is available in Arabic, Dari, French and Latvian languages. Thanks to this material, a possibility is provided for the minor refugees to get the information in their native languages, as well as to find out more about Latvia and learn the Latvian language in a creative way.
To introduce a general public with this material, a project team will organize an informative and educational event in the Latvian Museum of Natural History on 14 February 2017 at 12:30 p.m. during which everybody will have a possibility to meet Liene Valdmane, the author of the "Hedgehog Friends", to find out more about hedgehogs by help of the employees of the Latvian Museum of Natural History, as well as to participate in the creative workshops.
The goal of the project which started on 1 July 2016 is to ensure courses and informative events for the needs of the persons under international protection promoting their inclusion in the Latvian society. The duration of the project is 18 months, and it is planned to provide support to 530 people, including adults, children and illiterate asylum seekers, within the framework of the project.
"The Support Actions for Persons under International Protection" project within Asylum, Migration and Integration Foundation is performed by Society “Shelter “Safe House””. The project will be implemented until 31 December 2017. The project is co-financed by the European Union. Grant Agreement No. PMIF/9/2016/1/03.
Information was prepared by:
Rasa Salina (Rasa Saliņa),
Communications and Social Media Expert,
e-mail: rasa.salina@gmail.com