The project “Support Activities for Persons Under International Protection”, which the Society “Shelter “Safe House”” has been implementing since 1 July 2016, closes on 31 December 2017. The purpose of the project was to provide courses and informative activities fit for the needs of persons under international protection promoting their inclusion in the Latvian society.
Within 18 months, 20 groups, i.e., the total 461 representatives of the target group from 22 countries participated in the Social Economic Inclusion Program and completed the education: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Cuba, United States, India, Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Cameroon, Lebanon, Bangladesh.
Within the framework of the training programme, its participants learned about Latvia and how various systems operate in our country – employment, education, health care, housing market, support system for refugees and other. Throughout the training course lectors of the society together with participants of the courses also analysed specific situations and searched for practical solutions. Most interest and questions during the training were related to residence permits, employment, opening of a bank account, searching for an apartment. To promote participation of children with families in the courses, activities for children of different ages were also organised during the training.
In addition to the training course, there were also training visits to the training centre “BUTS” and companies “Senā klēts” and “Jaunais A salons”, where participants learned about the possibilities of obtaining a profession. Most interest and questions of the participants were about the most perspective professions, placement and training opportunities, including the level of Latvian necessary to start training, the duration, times, costs of courses. In order to get a better insight in the history of Latvia and Riga, educational trips to the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, the National History Museum of Latvia, the Riga Motor Museum, the Mentzendorff’s House, the Laima Chocolate Museum, the Zoo were organised.
In order to ensure high quality communication with participants of the trainings, all project activities were translated from Latvian into Tigrinya, Arabic, Kurdish, Tajik, Georgian, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, Tamil, Dari, Bengali, Turkish, French and Russian.
During the implementation of the project information adapted for the target group was created: the Information material “Latvia – a Country by the Baltic Sea” was updated and translated into Arabic, Dari, English and French.
As also minor children come to Latvia within the framework of the relocation programme, including children with special needs, an Information material about Latvia for children “Hedgehog and His Friends Learn about Latvia” has been created for them within the scope of the project. It covers general topics about the Latvian state, topic for children aged 6 to 9 years about school and school environment, including: I live in Latvia (about Latvia, Latvian symbols, history); we celebrate – holidays in Latvia; Latvian capital – Riga; Latvian nature, seasons; Latvian animals; Latvian national dishes; I prepare for school; I go to school; what to do after school – hobbies, interests; decency rules, etc. The material is available in Arabic, Dari, French and Latvian on www.beglis.lv.
10 interactive and easy to perceive stories on the topics of importance for refugees have been created to support persons under international protection who cannot or who have serious difficulty to write or read.
Website www.beglis.lv has been updated within the scope of the project, and provides information in 6 languages – Latvian, Russian, English, French, Arabic and Dari. The website has two main target audiences and tasks — one of the functions of the website is to create an understanding about refugees ensuring the opportunity for Latvian residents to receive information about different aspects of including refugees into the Latvian society. The refugees, who can receive answers to questions they are interested in by using the website, is the other main target audience. The website provides this information in languages, which are currently spoken by the asylum seekers who have entered or moved to Latvia.
The project “Support Activities for Persons Under International Protection” was implemented by the society “Shelter “Safe House”” within the framework of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. Its period of implementation: 1 July 2016 – 31 December 2017. The project was 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
tel. (+371) 29145314
e-mail: rasa.salina@gmail.com