From 12 to 19 February, the integration training course about Latvia has been mastered by nine persons under international protection in total – one woman and eight men – from Russia (3), Iran (3), Afghanistan (1) and India (2), informs Zanda Rudene, the head of the project “Support Activities for Persons Under International Protection II”.
“This is the 18th training group, participants of which mastered practical and useful information about starting living in Latvia within a special support project for persons under international protection. This group of students were most interested in employment – the size of wages in Latvia, tax policy. During lectures, there was also interest in social insurance matters and the market of rental apartments,” notes Z.Rudene.
She points out that translators and language specialists with knowledge of Farsi, Bengali and Hindu from the Information Centre for Newcomers were invited during the entire training period to ensure high quality communication with participants of training groups. English and Russian were used as intermediary languages during studies.
Integration courses provide an opportunity to their participants to acquire knowledge about Latvia, its state system, history, culture and traditions, practical information about Latvia, information about integration into the society, non-discrimination principles, communication, religious and cultural differences, housing market, employment options, education system and opportunities to obtain education. Participants can also learn about spending their leisure time, the health care system, social security network and social assistance system in Latvia.
At the same time, along with the integration training course the 11th training group started learning Latvian in CAS “Mucenieki” on 4 February. Overall, 13 persons under international protection learn Latvian in this group.
From 2 January 2018 until 30 June 2020 support under the Support Actions for Persons under International Protection II project will be provided to 500 persons, among them adults, children, and illiterate asylum seekers.
The Support Actions for Persons under International Protection II project is implemented with the support from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and co-financed by the European Union. Grant Agreement No. PMIF/9/2017/2/01/
