For 2 years the team of Tulip Foundation has been working on the adaptation, introduction and documentation of a model for support for young refugees provided by young language mentors volunteers. That was possible due to the extraordinary work of young volunteers in Sofia, who spent a lot of time meeting young refugees for a few months, and the cooperation with other organisations working with refugees.
The Tulip Foundation’s team implemented the activities for development and piloting of the model for young volunteers acting as informal language mentors of young refugees in partnership with the colleagues from Gemeinsam leben & lernen in Europa in Passau, Germany, and Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca in Romania. The model that has been developed in Germany can easily be applied by different organisations, that work with volunteers in the field of multicultural communication.
Based on the model that was adapted in the frame of the “Talk with me” project, funded under Erasmus + programme of the EU, and the practical experience of the volunteers and the refugees, we developed a full set of materials, which include project guideline, manual, toolbox and all the necessary documents for the application of the model. The set reflects the experience of the three organisations in three very different European countries. That gives us confidence that it will also work in other countries applied by other organisations.
We presented the model at a special public event “Talk with me” on 28 February at A-HUB. More than 20 representatives of different organisations working with refugees and volunteers attended the event like Bulgarian Red Cross, CVS Bulgaria, Council of Refugee Women in Bulgaria, UNICEF, Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants, Friends of the Refugees Group, Centre for the Study of Democracy, etc.
Miroslava Georgieva presented in details the steps in the development and the implementation of the model, illustrated with stories, examples and pictures. The participants raised various questions about practical details of the activities like involvement of children, selection of appropriate safe and convenient place for the meetings of the couples, reactions of parents of refugee children and many others.
At the end of the event all participants received a full set of the developed materials for organisations, volunteers - language mentors and young refugees. Some of the colleagues congratulated the team of Tulip Foundation for sharing their innovative and effective practice.
The set of materials, that can be downloaded, includes:
The Refugee Situation - Summary of the National Surveys
Curriculum for Language Mentors
Manual for an information session for young refugees
