ONGOING PROJECTS

Training on psycho-social needs of refugees

This training on Psycho-Social Needs of Refugees is a project aimimg to increase the quality for training activities on Psycho-social needs of refugees.  The project will share knowledge and experiences and producing a website for dissemination in collaboration with 3 other european organisations:Insan Haklari Araitirmalar Dernei (Turkey), IMIR Institut für Migrations (Germany) and CEIPES (Italy) . This partnership offers exchange of experiences and knowledge between the organizations who have trainings for human rights activists working for providing psycho-social support to refugees. The direct target group of the poject is human rights activists and the trainers of human rights activists. The main result of the project will be a curriculum of training of human rights activists on psycho-social needs of refugees and migrants.

Awareness Raising through Comic Books

Racism, Xenophobia, Intolerance, Cultural shock takes nowadays different forms and the fight against it must also be diverse.  Everyone knows that comics have had for several years and is still having a high power of attraction on children and teenagers.  It constitutes an excellent and fun way of raising awareness on  “refugees and refugee issues” - amongst people and mainly children and teenagers in Europe.

We are preparing a series of comics dealing with different aspects of a refugee/asylum seeker’s life (such as living in a refugee camp, resettlement, fleeing their own country, etc….). The comics will be printed out in 6 different languages and distributed through our partners to vocational high schools, student associations, universities, NGOs working with children, civil societies etc….. of 8 different countries (Belgium, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Slovenia, Portugal, and Spain).  The purpose is to spread awareness in a fun way about refugees and refugee issues amongst European children, teenagers, young adults and adults.

European Youth Training

New project focused on Youth European organisations aiming to provide high quality training courses on professional competences and management abilities for international projects. With this initiative, and with the support of 12 partners in 9 countries, RESPECT promotes and encourages youth students to become a well prepared generation of professionals and managers of civil and social organisations, empowering their capacities and acting power in social projects and campaigns aiming to improve several aspects of our society.

RESPECT UNIVERSITY

RESPECT University was established to provide post-secondary instruction to refugee students under the guidance of tutors from around the world. We see this as a logical extension of our mission to link refugee and non-refugee schools worldwide. Teaching and learning are carried out by correspondence, using conventional postal mail services, although contact with local coordinators is maintained via email. The tutor sends a series of assignments which the students complete and then return to the teacher for comments and feedback (each assignment can take a month or more to be returned to the tutor because of limited postal service to areas occupied by refugees.)

Refugee Letter Exchange

RESPECT introduces class to a class of refugee students of similar age and academic level by pen-pal letter exchange. Letter exchange can be conducted as a class, or a club activity. RESPECT has developed an ever-growing list of working relationships with schools servicing refugee, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and otherwise war-affected youth from around the world. Countries include Sierra Leone, Guinea, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since the start of the project, RESPECT introduced over 3 000 refugee students to non-refugee students around the world. Exchanging letters with refugee students is very powerful. RESPECT hopes the experience will be personal, educational and inspirational.

Building awareness of world issues through videos and discussion and growing a personal connection between refugee and non-refugee students through letter exchange lead rather naturally to a desire to do something to help.

RECENTLY CLOSED PROJECTS

European Awareness raising campaign on refugee issues

Done together with 8 NGOs in 10 different countries all of them under RESPECT’s coordination, this project has finally produced a very interesting material to explain kids and youth about the reality of the refugees in the world. We have already printed and distributed thousands of these leaflets, entitled Refugees and Exile in schools and youth centers all over the continent in several languages.