During the period from 1 July 2016 until 30 June 2017 Society "Shelter "Safe House"" has provided training courses and various information events adapted to the needs of persons under international protection and promoting inclusion of this target group in the Latvian society to 355 persons under international protection. All in all 15 groups have completed the training programme on the social and economic inclusion. People from 20 countries participated in it: Syria (239), Eritrea (27), Afghanistan (21), Iraq (12), Tajikistan (9), Bangladesh (5), Armenia (5), India (4), Kyrgyzstan (4), Lebanon (4), Russia (4), Turkey (4), Azerbaijan (3), Belarus (3), Georgia (3), Sri Lanka (3), Cuba (2), USA (1), Cameroon (1), Nepal (1).
To form a more comprehensive picture of the history of Latvia and Riga, 163 representatives of the target group attended the Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, the National History Museum of Latvia, Riga Motor Museum, Mentzendorff House, the Laima Chocolate Museum and Riga Zoo.
Specialists of the Society "Shelter "Safe House"" provided an opportunity to 269 participants of the training programme to learn more about the possibilities of acquiring various professions by organizing educational visits to the training centre "BUTS" and one visit to the company "Senā klēts" and "Jaunais A salons" for 14 groups.
During the entire period of training, communication with the participants of the socio-economic training programme was ensured by Tigrinya, Arabic, Kurdish, Tajik, Georgian, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, Tamil, Dari, Bengali and Turkish language experts.
For the support of persons under international protection, who are illiterate or have serious difficulties writing or reading, 10 informative videos-animations on the following topics have been produced under the project: security and assistance services in Latvia (how to act in emergency situations), money and banks, documentation, transport in Latvia, seasons, housing, medical services, employment, holidays and education. Videos along with other practical information on the refugee integration for the target group of the project and the Latvian society is available on the website www.beglis.lv/www.refugees.lv in six languages - Latvian, Russian, English, French, Arabic, Dari.
A special 27-page informative material "Hedgehog`s Friends" was developed for children and is now available in Arabic, Dari, French and Latvian languages. The material provides minor refugees with information about Latvia in their native tongue and helps them to learn Latvian language in a creative way.
Representatives of the Society "Shelter "Safe House"" emphasise that the information material for asylum seekers "Latvia is a state at the Baltic Sea" has been updated and made available to the target group in Latvian, Arabic, Dari, English, and French.
The Support Actions for Persons under International Protection project will continue until 31 December 2017. Support under the project will be provided to 530 persons, among them adults, children and illiterate asylum seekers. The project within Asylum, Migration and Integration Foundation is performed by Society “Shelter “Safe House””. 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
