Empower refugees to make Brazil home

Welcome House

In 2014, we created the program Levando Ajuda ao Refugiado - LAR, to respond to the most basic and urgent needs of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers on Brazilian soil.

Syria was the country that generated the most refugees in the world recently. According to UNHCR data, the approximately 5.5 million Syrians who were forced to flee constitute the largest group of refugees in the world.

Since then, considering the migratory flows to Brazil, we began to assist refugees of various nationalities, from Venezuelans to Egyptians, Palestinians, etc. Currently, refugees from Afghanistan appear in second place in the UNHCR indicators, if we consider the country of origin, with about 3.5 million displaced people.

For this reason, we started the project Casa de Acolhida (Welcome House), meeting the need for protection and support as a response to the flow of Afghan people who arrived in Brazil. Also consideranting the main demands of this population: learning the local language, access to the labor market and social assistance.

We started our welcoming project in April 2022 through a partnership with other institutions, to guarantee housing (an apartment in central São Paulo) and the expenses that the family would have with rent, food, etc. 

Through this we were also able to accompany the families in other areas such as: Portuguese teaching, assistance in regularizing documentation, medical referrals and orientation regarding the labor market. 

Our goal is that this follow-up has a minimum period of 6 months, with the possibility of being extended for another 6. However, this is only possible as long as the families want to be assisted by our organization. 

We recently welcomed the third family that will be housed in this apartment, as the first two have moved to other states due to job opportunities. It is worth mentioning that: the first family, composed of 7 people, stayed in the apartment for almost 2 months; the second, composed of 8 people, stayed for 4 months; the third, composed of 5 people, has only been there a few days. 

With the experience we had in this last semester, we are already planning improvements for the project in 2023, whether in terms of guaranteeing more housing to consequently receive more families, or in the more effective monitoring of these families.