Friday 17 July 2009

Cardiff gets the ball rolling...

The Wales Regional Campaign Action Team, who are already successfully exchanging over £1000 per week of Sectoin Four supermarket vouchers, have decided to take on the challenge of setting up an Internship Scheme for local people seeking sanctuary.

Deskilling, depression and boredom has become a major problem amongst people seeking sanctuary in Cardiff. Many people have shared stories about missing their life in the work place, and have been left feeling that their talents and skills are being wasted. They broke this large problem down into the tangible issue of people being deskilled because they are unable to work.

The RCAT gathered to discuss this issue and agreed that building on the Zimbabwean pilot internship scheme in London would be one innovative citizen subversion to the problem of people not being able to work. The group are going to set up a head quarters, linked to Oxfam Wales, to run an internship for local people seeking sanctuary to get skills and experience in local businesses, charities and service providers. The interns need to be provided with a lunch and travel expenses but otherwise they will volunteer their time and expertise. However, despite being voluntary, the internships will try to provide meaningful tasks and hopefully references in the long term for people seeking sanctuary.

It's an exciting new project that can also help with the local integration and it will be interesting to see how the team and the interns develop over the coming months.

1 comment:

  1. That is a very noble project. I believe it would give many people seeking sanctuary in Cardiff to leave their rooms at least for some time and share their experiences and gain from the experiences of others which would help them in their future careers.

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