Nottingham connected
Education & Career
29
Refugees & Asylum Seekers Community
Media Champions Launched
By Emma Cooper
Refugees and asylum seekers experience difficulties
in adjusting to their new homes and cultures. They
also experience negative attention from the media
and some members of local communities who
blame them for ills arising from wider social issues.
The recent surge in the numbers of asylum seekers
has exacerbated these problems requiring rapid
and innovative response to support refugees and
asylum seekers in Nottingham and beyond.
Mojatu Foundation is offering one such solution by
launching a 6 months Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Media Training Project. It will run over the next 9
months, starting from October 2016. This initiative,
titled Refugees and Asylum Seekers Community Media
Champions aims at making refugees and asylum
seekers active participants and knowledgeable
negotiators in their communities and within their new
homes, communities and environments.
The program, whose initial fund has been provided
by Nottingham Refugee Forum’s Community of
Interest fund offered by Nottingham City Council. It
is also supported by Communities Inc., a local social
enterprise tackling hate crime and supporting social
cohesion and Insite Radio, which supports new and
emerging communities in Nottingham.
12 individuals will be recruited and trained, over a 6
months period. Courses will include media training,
placement with local partners, working across
cultures, nationalities and races, social media, legal
issues and self-confidence. The trainees will give
their voices to their communities by capturing and
sharing their stories, translating contents about
their and other communities for wider readership
and engagement and helping their communities to
engage more widely with other settled and new and
emerging groups.
Through the placement process, the trainees will
act as ambassadors in the organisations they will be
working thereby linking their communities with these
organisations and their wider networks. The trainees
will also inform and help attract other members
of their communities to existing opportunities
such as mentorship, training, placements, jobs and
volunteering opportunities. They will also act as links
towards existing advice, counselling and community
activities available locally. They will help their
communities to access information on organisations
and groups that support refugees and asylum seekers
or refugee-led groups.
Mojatu Foundation publishes Mojatu magazines
in Nottingham, Berkshire, Somaliland, The Gambia
and Kenya. We also tackle issues such as Female
Genital Mutilation and are active in supporting new
and emerging communities. Over the last five years,
Mojatu has worked with refugees and asylum seekers
in different capacities ranging from management,
training, volunteering, organising events and
supporting projects for young people and those with
mental health needs. Most of our staff and volunteers
originate from similar backgrounds.
Recruitment starts this September focusing on
refugees and asylum seekers from African and Middle
Eastern backgrounds. They will acquire leadership and
communication skills and confidence building. This
will improve their individual and community lives as
well as ensuring that the needs of local communities
are not ignored within Nottingham.
We are currently looking for extra funding and
partners to help make the project successful by
offering placements and support to the trainees.
To join the program or to become a partner, please
contact Mojatu Foundation & Magazines at 167
Alfreton Road, Nottingham, NG7 3JR or call Mr Frank
Kamau on 0115 8457 009 or 0751 6962 992 or email
[email protected].