If you missed the presentation event of Refugees Welcome Porto on the 26th of October, here is some information about this organization that will be very helpful for you to know if you are thinking about contributing to the cause of refugees. The event started with a series of short films, which you can find at the end of this article, and continued with a talk and powerpoint about the main tasks of this project.
Refugees Welcome is a non-profit organization created in 2015 by a group of young people. The project started in Germany with the idea of flatsharing with refugees and it has been expanding to other countries in Europe ever since. Their goal is to help refugees adjust to the new country and overcome any difficulties they may find while adapting to a new, different reality. If you are interested in collaborating with them, you should be taking into account that there are two ways of contributing: either as a volunteer or a as mentor.
Regarding voluntary service, there are several different teams that you can be a member of, such as the refugees team, in which volunteers conduct interviews and meetings with the new refugees that contact the organization in order to get to know them and evaluate their needs; or the events team, where members are in charge of carrying out a series of events to raise awareness within the local community and other activities like dinner meetings. They also have other small teams for the social media, marketing and sustainability, and others. But perhaps, one of the main teams of this project is the housing team. Here, people can help refugees by providing them accommodation for a certain period of time for free, or with an arranged contract between the two parts. It should be taken into account that the whole idea of this project is not that of renting or lending rooms, but of flatsharing with equal tenancy rights. For more information about this project check out the link to their website below.
If you are interested in helping a refugee in a more direct way, you can become a mentor. “Programa mentores para migrantes” is a project supported by the Portuguese government to support not only refugees, but also Portuguese migrants that are returning after a long period of time living in a different country. Through this platform, you will be assigned to a refugee or Portuguese migrant to help them get any kind of legal documents, to create a Curriculum Vitae and look for a job, to look for accommodation, to learn Portuguese, and many other tasks to help them settle. For more information click on the link below.
"Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island"
"Malak and the Boat"
"Refuge"
"Scent of Geranium"