Today I will be following up on PMV Ambassador juliènne Doppenberg-Difukidi
Juliènne founded Tosangana in 2006 to follow up on the work her parents have done in Congo. The projects are situated in Kinshasa and focus on education, empowering women and agriculture.
Juliènne also does projects in The Netherlands that support refugees. In this story she explains..
Juliènne: since the start of Tosangana, we have also been working on integration projects for refugees in the Netherlands. Most of them are from Nigeria, Afghanistan, India and DR Congo. They are here less then 3 years and don´t have a residence permit yet.
Juliènne: this year we did a few projects to help them integrate. We did coffee meetings with storytelling, Dutch lessons, visited Maastricht and Utrecht and explained the history of these cities. Next to this they also did a first aid course.
These were the words of the participants and our findings:
1. Thanks to our trip to Maastricht participants concluded that the Netherlands is not as flat as they thought
2. True stories told by the person who experienced it had a great influence on the participants
3. The first aid certificate works wonders: regaining status, hope, self-confidence, finally feeling useful to society
4. Storytellers and dialogue lead to self-awareness and contribute to the healing process
Recommendations from Juliènne..
- Make use of people who have once been refugees.
- Role models can be very helpful in integration and participation
- Knowledge of Dutch history brings people out of the unknown and prevents ignorance
This was a great experience for them and us too.
You can find more about Stichting Tosangana on www.tosangana.com
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