WHI - BE
Welcome Home International (Belgium)
Welcome Home International is a small NGO that was founded in March 2018. We were inspired by volunteering, where we took many refugees into our homes as hosts. We became the first contact point for them and often followed up with legal support, medical support and friendship. We recognised then that the formalised methods of integration adopted by the authorities met only part of their needs. The remainder was the human touch involving community networking, language immersion, non-formal education and genuine communication.
Now, as an organisation, our philosophy is that integration is a two-way street. We seek innovative methods to support refugees and asylum seekers arriving in our societies. We implement and design hands-on projects to create inviting environments where newcomers and local community members can acquire the tools and information they need to help integration happen naturally. We have had great success filling the need for volunteer activities and events that engage the new arrivals with local community members. We work on projects related to refugee and asylum seeker needs such as language acquisition, literacy, digital skills, job seeking and mentoring, the development of soft skills, gender-based violence, reproductive health, mindfulness meditation and anything transferable to a refugee target.
