Since 2 January 2018 society “Shelter “Safe House”” is implementing the project “Support Activities for Persons Under International Protection II” aimed at inclusion of persons under international protection into society by providing training courses and tailored information on their rights and responsibilities in various areas of life. The contents of the training course are tailored to the needs of persons, who have recently arrived in Latvia and are finding their way around.
Until June this year nine groups — 142 persons in total — have taken the integration training course about Latvia. 122 participants were issued certificates confirming that they have completed the course. Persons under international protection from 28 countries were among the participants. Communication with the participants of training groups was ensured by skilled interpreters or speakers of Dari, Turkish, Tigrinya, Arabic, Urdu, Georgian, French, Bengali, Spanish, Tamil languages. This service is provided by the “Information Centre for Newcomers”. English and Russian were used as intermediary languages.
Integration courses provide an opportunity to their participants to acquire knowledge about Latvia, its state system, history, culture and traditions, practical information about Latvia, information about integration into the society, non-discrimination principles, communication, religious and cultural differences, housing market, employment options, education system and opportunities to obtain education. Participants can also learn about spending their leisure time, the health care system, social security network and social assistance system in Latvia. Childcare was organised during the training to enable families with children to participate.
In order to enable to get knowledge and skills of Latvian necessary for work and everyday life, as well as develops main language skills, the course of Latvian is implemented within the scope of the project “Support Activities for Persons Under International Protection II”. The courses are available in Riga and in CAS Mucenieki (for the persons accommodated there).
From January 2018 to this moment Latvian language courses have been attended by 92 persons (in six groups) all in all, 70 of these people have been issued a certificate on completion of the courses. There were persons from 26 countries among the participants of Latvian language courses.
Availability of information about life in Latvia to persons under international protection is promoted by providing the project`s target group with access to the mobile application “First Steps in Latvia” developed by the society “Shelter “Safe House””. It can be downloaded free of charge from Google Play and App Store. The application is available in Latvian, English, Russian, French, Arabic, Dari.
SIA (limited liability company) „Weitner” has launched a satisfaction survey of the participants of the second training course to provide feedback for improvement of training courses and programmes. It is planned that the survey will be finished until July this year. Such surveys will be conducted three times during implementation of the project.
Until 30 June 2020 support under the Support Actions for Persons under International Protection II project will be provided to 500 persons, among them adults, children, and illiterate asylum seekers.
The Support Actions for Persons under International Protection II project is implemented with the support from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and co-financed by the European Union. Grant Agreement No. PMIF/9/2017/2/01/