Society “Shelter “Safe House”” informs that the integration training course about Latvia organised within the project Support Measures for Persons Under International Protection III has been completed by two training groups, which started their training in the beginning of May. In six meetings, asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Syria, Belarus, Russia, and Uzbekistan gained comprehensive knowledge about Latvia.
Dari and Arabic interpreters were involved to ensure quality communication with the course participants. Russian was used as an intermediary training language.
Project manager Zanda Rudene acknowledges that this course is very important for the education of asylum seekers. It is an opportunity to discuss important integration issues. It should be mentioned that the integration starts with information on the use of the train and Riga’s public transport, and the use of Google Maps to get to a given address. We also have to encourage women and young people from the families to join the classes, as well as provide a small insight into the variety of Latvian snacks while enjoying coffee breaks. For example, groups were offered the opportunity to taste cottage cheese snacks, honey cake, various candy, cream puffs, kvass, meringue cookies to find out the preferences of the course participants. Z. Rudene tells that currently more and more persons are staying in their places of residence outside the CAS “Mucenieki”. Therefore, it was particularly important to coordinate these groups as they were attended by people currently living in Ikšķile, Ulbroka, Riga city centre, Sarkandaugava, CAS “Mucenieki”, as well as a person who joined remotely as they currently live in Liepāja.
As part of the integration training course, participants had the opportunity to gain knowledge about Latvia, its state system, history, culture and traditions, practical information about Latvia, integration into the society, non-discrimination principles, housing market, employment opportunities, education system, healthcare system, social security network, and social support system in Latvia.
There are also currently four Latvian language study groups, which are being held according to the target group’s ability to attend the course. Two groups are held on the premises of the CAS “Mucenieki” for asylum seekers with or without different intermediary languages. One group is implemented remotely using Russian language on Zoom platform, as this group consists of persons under international protection from different places in Latvia – Saulkrasti, Liepāja, as well as from Riga – Mucenieki, Ķengarags, Sarkandaugava and central districts. One group is organised on the premises of Ikšķile Secondary School, where the target group comes from Ikšķile, Ogre, and Riga. There is a great interest and desire to learn Latvian, with 54 people from Afghanistan, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Russia, and Ukraine currently taking part in the training.
The aim of the Latvian language training course is to enable persons under international protection to acquire the knowledge and skills of the Latvian language necessary in the work and everyday life environment, as well as to develop main language skills.
Support Actions for Persons Under International Protection III project is implemented with the support of the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and is co-financed by the European Union. Grant agreement No. PMIF/9/2020/3/02
