The project aims to ensure social integration opportunities for beneficiaries of international protection in Hungary via complex targeted services in the form of social and legal counselling, educational and family support.
Menedék provides complex social work with the instrument of individual- and group work which includes among others administrative support, health care support, intercultural mediation and interpretation, housing support, legal counselling and advice in integration-related matters, informal language trainings, preparation for naturalization exam and job-seeking counselling. We pay special attention to children and support their and their families’ integration. This includes support in enrolment and integration into kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, mentoring in basic subjects such as math and Hungarian grammar with special focus on skills development and problem solving. It also includes psychological support for children and their parents in order to reduce the stress and traumas developed as a result of their reception and living conditions and their extraordinary life situation. An additional target group of this project are students from third countries who arrived to Hungary with different scholarship programs, holding residence permit for the purpose of study. Yet, they often come from conflict areas, war zones, authoritarian regimes or oppressive social systems. Some may have fled from persecution or conflict situations. Menedék implements community activities and provide counselling in order to reach out to these potential people of concern. We also consider community engagement as an important task and therefore strive to organize regular community and group activities e.g. Women’s Club, Youth Club, Children’ Club as well as activities for unaccompanied and separated children.
The effective integration of our beneficiaries most importantly requires an inclusive society. Menedék’s goal is that the majority society shall become more open and receptive to foreigners coming to Hungary. Reaching this goal in the project, Menedék supports teachers and classroom communities by organizing awareness raising sessions and workshops focusing on the concept of asylum and migration, the refugee experience and intercultural encounters. The aim of the workshops is to facilitate the inclusion of refugee children into schools, as well as mitigating and preventing conflicts between refugee and non-refugee children and their parents.
Additionally, we concentrate on empowering those public institutions who can get into contact with beneficiaries of international protection (such as child protection institutions, family care centers, schools and kindergartens, health care institutions, police, local municipalities) to build their own capacities and providing basic services to refugees and migrants independently. Similarly, through labor market integration activities Menedék transfers knowledge to those companies who are willing to employ people with refugee or migrant background, supporting them in their already existing efforts to build their own labor market integration strategies and capacities.
