Society “Shelter “Safe House”” informs that from 2 January to 30 June of this year activities were implemented to promote inclusion of persons under international protection in the Latvian society under the Support Actions for Persons under International Protection II project.
In total, three groups have graduated from integration courses – 45 persons (9 women, 36 men) from 14 countries: Russia (9), Azerbaijan (8), Eritrea (7), Afghanistan (5), Turkey (4), Georgia (3), Syria (2), Sudan (1), Bangladesh (1), Pakistan (1), Tajikistan (1), Kyrgyzstan (1), Congo (1), Uzbekistan (1).
There were 7 persons accepted by Latvia under the European Union (EU) Resettlement Scheme and 38 persons, who had crossed the Latvian border independently, among the participants of the training courses. 43 participants of the courses had the status of asylum seeker, but 2 persons were under subsidiary protection.
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. Communication with the trainees was ensured by seven interpreters and speakers of Turkish, Dari, Arabic, Tigrinya, Georgian and Urdu languages.
The project manager Zanda Rudene (Zanda Rudene) points out that the participants were for the most part interested in health care, employment, including employment opportunities in Latvia. "There were families with children among the trainees, who had numerous questions related to education of children – general as well as informal education."
28 persons under international protection took also the Latvian language course under the project. The participants of the training were given an opportunity to attend Latvian language courses so that they would be able to communicate, when solving various everyday problems or obtaining documents from the local or public authorities.
The training was organized in two groups and persons from 11 countries participated in it: Eritrea (7), Sudan (1), Congo (1), Bangladesh (1), Afghanistan (1), Russia (10), Azerbaijan (3), Georgia (1), Israel (1), Kyrgyzstan (1), Ukraine (1). All in all 21 person under International protection received a certificate about completion of the Latvian language course.
"Participants of the courses displayed great interest in the contents of the programme. Participants showed great interest in learning and about life in Latvia, its history, culture and traditions. They inquired eagerly into possibilities to take the state language examination so that they could find work as soon as possible afterwards. The positive attitude of language students during the learning process was satisfying. They were very active during the lessons, took part in situational language games in the classroom gladly and were diligent in preparing their homework – individually or in pairs," emphasises the Latvian teacher Lolita Zilberte (Lolita Zilberte).
As part of the project a mobile application "First Steps in Latvia" has been developed to ensure availability of information about the life in Latvia to the target group. A free download of the test version of the application is available at Google Play and App Store. To make it easier for the target group of the project to find answers to frequently asked questions about the life in Latvia, information from the questions and answers section published on www.beglis.lv website is included in the mobile application. The application is available in Latvian, English, French, Arabic and Dari. Representatives of the society point out that presently work on the content of the application is still in progress, and its testing will be offered to the target group of the project first.
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.
Information was prepared by: Rasa Salina (Rasa Saliņa), Multimedia Communications Specialist, phone 22026355, e-mail: rasa.salina@patverums-dm.lv