Many travel from their mother land to an European country to apply for asylum. Here you are registered and placed in a reception-centers while your application is treated.
What awaits you in a reception-centers?
We who work in the centers are trying to help, to keep hopes up. We teach about the new countries society, the rules, routines, laws and language.
We show them the different stores, where to go for special items. About expensive stores and cheap stores, about money, how to transfer into dollars or Euro. Asylum seekers in Norway do not receive allot of money while waiting for their application to be treated. The money you receive has to cover food, clothing, medicine etc, so it is important to know how to make the money last.
Other services that are important to know about are where to go for coffee, to meet friend at a pub, where to go swimming, where the museums are and so on. Also to learn to rent books and read newspapers for free at the library. Is is also possible to use the internett at the library, and many asylum seekers use this as a meeting spot.
Language is hard to learn because we are all different. Some people learn language easily, some not, but all have language problems in the beginning. But allot can be said by using body language and a dictionary also.
The staff also help the asylum seekers to find sparetime activities. We arrange football-, volleyball- and basket games, and guide them to fitness centers. The fitness centers is Kongsberg have good prices for our participants. Since Norway and Kongsberg has a magnificent nature, we also arrange picnics. Although they have the opportunity to participate in activities, many are occupied with worries about their case and their future. They miss therir family and friends, and do not attend to any of these activities.
Some asylum seekers are interested in practical work so we are in contact with allot of workplaces to see if it is possible for the the asylum seekers to either get a part time job or be in a workplace to practice the language.
What awaits you in a reception-centers?
We who work in the centers are trying to help, to keep hopes up. We teach about the new countries society, the rules, routines, laws and language.
We show them the different stores, where to go for special items. About expensive stores and cheap stores, about money, how to transfer into dollars or Euro. Asylum seekers in Norway do not receive allot of money while waiting for their application to be treated. The money you receive has to cover food, clothing, medicine etc, so it is important to know how to make the money last.
Other services that are important to know about are where to go for coffee, to meet friend at a pub, where to go swimming, where the museums are and so on. Also to learn to rent books and read newspapers for free at the library. Is is also possible to use the internett at the library, and many asylum seekers use this as a meeting spot.
Language is hard to learn because we are all different. Some people learn language easily, some not, but all have language problems in the beginning. But allot can be said by using body language and a dictionary also.
The staff also help the asylum seekers to find sparetime activities. We arrange football-, volleyball- and basket games, and guide them to fitness centers. The fitness centers is Kongsberg have good prices for our participants. Since Norway and Kongsberg has a magnificent nature, we also arrange picnics. Although they have the opportunity to participate in activities, many are occupied with worries about their case and their future. They miss therir family and friends, and do not attend to any of these activities.
Some asylum seekers are interested in practical work so we are in contact with allot of workplaces to see if it is possible for the the asylum seekers to either get a part time job or be in a workplace to practice the language.
Henri Filmand
2 comentarios:
I think its really important the job you are doing with them. As teachers, we forget that many times is most important to help them for their everyday life than the ordinary job in the classroom with maths and sciences.
I am sure they will value your help because all they learn, they can use in his life.
Lately there have been some focus on the asylum seekers in Kongsberg, and we even sense it at our school. As time goes by the participants (asylum seekers) at Fredheim are now getting more and more frustrated about their situation. This is because some of them get their permit to stay in Norway, whilst others are denied and have to go back to where they came from. In one class we therefore might have people who have been accepted, and others who are rejected - and they are not as nice to eachother as before because of this. One young man told me that he is frustrated to see that he might be sent home to Afghanistan after a long period in Norway. He has always behaved nice here, done whatever he was told, done his homework and been nice to everyone. Others, he says, have never done what was expected of them, only seldom shown up at school, been stealing and done breaks etc, and they have gotten the permit to stay in Norway.
I do understand this man's feelings. He has tried so hard to be accepted as a human beeing in need for protection, never done anything wrong. Others who do the opposite, have succeeded... Where is the logic, he asks me. I cannot give him the answer!
One more thing has now been taken up in the newspapers. The police claim that gangs of asylum seekers have molested female inhabitants asking questions like: "Can I touch you?" and "Can I come home with you?" This is of course a serious case which stigmatizes all male asylum seekers. Some of them has therefore made a counter-attac in our local newspaper saying that it's a shame that the previous article now puts them all in a difficult situation, and many of them even claim that they have lost their Norwegian friends because of this. They now feel very upset and afraid, and feel that the Norwegian population do not accept them anymore.
Life is complicated, especially for those who do not belong anywhere. With families and friends far away, situations like this in a cold country far north must be very difficult for a person who has only one wish for Christmas: to get his/her life back!
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