Refugee Rights Romania Project #55992

Integrated support for refugees from Ukraine

by ATELIERE FARA FRONTIERE

Project Report | Apr 6, 2023
We aim for systemic change!

By Stefania Neagoe | Mission Facilitator

Workshop with stakeholders

Nearly one year after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, the social and professional integration of refugees is crucial for their overall integration and social cohesion. To address this issue, we have launched a series of stakeholder consultations aimed at improving livelihoods and fostering social and professional integration.

During these consultations, NGOs and representatives of local authoroties shared their experiences from the past year, highlighting the need for an integrated database of support services and information about beneficiaries, mixed community development centers, and day care centers for children. Other key recommendations included setting more realistic expectations for beneficiaries, coherent funding frameworks, and promoting collaboration between funders, as well as between public and private providers of social and employment services.

In addition to these consultations, on February 27th, we initiated Romanian language classes for displaced persons from Ukraine. To date, approximately 90 participants have enrolled in the program and are studying in six groups, with some classes taking place in sector 4 near Gheorghe Sincai High School. The courses are 120 hours in length and provide participants with basic language skills to facilitate their job search and integration into the community. Classes are offered both intensively (five days a week, three hours per day) and with a more flexible schedule (two to three meetings per week, each lasting one and a half hours) to accommodate those with limited availability.

Throughout our experience, we have observed that the inability to speak Romanian is one of the biggest obstacles to the integration of displaced persons from Ukraine. Without a common language, these individuals struggle to find employment and communicate their needs and rights effectively. For this reason, we believe that these Romanian language courses are essential for their successful integration into Romanian society.

Romanian language classes

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Dec 8, 2022
Ekaterina and other 11 refugees work at AFF

By Stefania Neagoe | Mission Facilitator

The President of the EESC meeting AFF

12 Ukrainian refugees are currently hired in AFF, out of which 7 women and 5 men, aged between 16 to 55 years old, 9 being at risk persons with different vulnerabilities besides being war refugees (e.g., lack of education, single mother). Our insertion counselor provided them with consistent counselling sessions for their daily problems, for their integration in Romanian working and living conditions. The counselor ensures monthly counselling sessions and, whenever necessary, support for health issues (registration with a family doctor, medical emergencies, etc.), transportation issues and other daily challenges.

We have also ensured a Romanian language course, at our premises, starting with October 2022, for the major part of them (not speaking Romanian). The lack of communication (most of the refugees do not speak Romanian or other international languages) represents a major challenge for access to employment and social integration.

In August 2022, we have organized visits to an employer for several AFF employees, including one refugee, that was able to find our detailed information about labor conditions and requirements as well as to test – in ½ day of practice – how it is to work in a gas station kitchen. We continue to search for and present them job opportunities, in order for them to have a better understanding of labor market in Romania.

In 29th of November 2022, we have organized a legal training for 12 refugees, including AFF employees, and beneficiaries of an ONG partner, Fundatia Mladita, in order for them to have basic information about Romanian legal framework.

Christa Schweng, president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) visited our workshops on November 10. Christa Schweng showed her support for the important role that AFF has by developing its projects for the integration of people from Ukraine and vulnerable people from Romania. The President of the EESC visited the educlick and remesh workshops within the AFF and talked to the refugees employed by AFF.

Your financial support has offered us the possibility to cover costs that our usual target group – vulnerable from Romania – does not need. Thus, we have been able to better serve the vulnerable displaced persons from Ukraine, mainly overcoming the language barrier by hiring a social counsellor speaker of Russian-Romanian-English. She is present on daily basis on the site, making a safer place for the Russian speakers to express themselves and during counselling sessions she helps them navigate the challenges of adapting to a new life. Moreover, we were happy to be able to cover partially the costs of her salary with your support, as she previously worked as a volunteer in the main train station in Bucharest for over four months.

Anna learns to sew upcycled bags

Counselling session

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Aug 12, 2022
10 persons fleeing the war have a new start!

By Stefania Neagoe | Mission Facilitator

Coaching session

AFF has been providing continuous activation services for the most disadvantaged workers for the last 14 years and in the new context generated by the conflict from Ukraine, our organisation adapted its services to integrate the affected people fleeing the war. With this goal in mind, we structured a methodology and the necessary instruments in order to train and improve the professional skills of the most disadvantaged, specifically addressing the Ukrainian refugee crisis and integrating refugees and migrants who are wishing to stay in Romania on medium and long term. The people fleeing Ukraine are in post traumatic stress and need psychological support, meaning that they are not able yet to make medium and long term plans.

Moreover, most refugees do not speak Romanian or English, contributing thus to the risk of isolation in the lack of other support activities. The lack of integrated or coordinated services makes the intervention rather difficult. At Ateliere Fara Frontiere, we are working with over 40 public and private social service providers (accomodation, health and mental health, food, etc), a network built in 14 years of existence. Ateliere Fara Frontiere managed to enroll in its insertion programme 10 persons fleeing Ukraine in the last 6 months. Two of them are in a very vulnerable situation, respectively they are teenagers (17yo), both of them are on their own in Romania, therefore they really need support to ensure their integration and to earn their means. To both of them we offer counseling and access to Romanian language acquisition. Another person from Odessa speaks a little bit of Romanian (her mother was from Republic of Moldova) and works at the farm and, moreover, their case management is handled in cooperation with another local NGO that provides them with temporary shelter and food.

On top of recruiting vulnerable persons from Ukraine, Ateliere Fara Frontiere has provided more than 40 refurbished desktops and laptops to both refugees and local NGOs which have assisted refugees since February 2022. The computers are mainly used by teachers and pupils to continue their education, by accessing online schooling in their mother tongues. In the organizations providing social services, the computers are used either in facilitating social activities or in case management and data registration at the refugee centers at the border.

A together moment with the beneficiaries

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