ARESTA seeks to provide a comprehensive psychosocial package of self-reliance activities. Through ARESTA's holistic approach to adult education, the goal is to provide a solution of a kind, which assists refugees and asylum seekers to grapple with economic, social and psychological issues in South Africa. .
3. INCOME GENERATION ACTIVITIES: AMAZING BEADWORK COOPERATIVE
As ARESTA's projects are always a collaborative effort between the organisation and the refugee community. A needs assessment study is first conducted within the community to inform programme development and implementation. ARESTA recognizes that it is essential to consult community members throughout programme design and implementation to ensure that services and informational materials address their concerns and needs.
Focus group discussion with all sectors of the community as well as existing community groups and communities ensure that local needs and cultural considerations are taken into account. Most importantly, this method ensures "ownership" of the programmes by the communities, with a higher probability of success.
Feedback from the community regarding our services is obtained via the course evaluation sheets at the end of each training programme, verbal feedback, reports, bi-annual questionnaires completed by volunteers, community meetings and key role-players attendance at the Annual General Meeting.
ARESTA's services and activities aim to meet the following needs:
• Career and educational counselling;
• English language training;
• Refugee rights awareness campaigns;
• Vocational and skills development training;
• HIV/AIDS, lifeskills and gender awareness;
• Income generation activities;
• Self-sustainability initiatives;
• Networking, lobbying and advocacy.
1. CAREERS AND EDUCATIONAL COUNSELLING AND REFERRALS
ARESTA provides career and educational counseling to enable refugees and asylum seekers to care for themselves and their families.
Activities and services provided include:
• Employment opportunities workshops at ARESTA's Training Centre;
• Job-hunting support: bring Asylums seekers and Refugees to read jobs adverts in newspapers;
• Curriculum Vitae (CV) and cover letter writing;
• Job interview preparation: role play;
• Contact with the South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) in order to help Refugees to obtain equivalences of their academic qualifications in South Africa;
• Assistance with registration at professional boards i.e. medical, psychologist or nursing councils;
• Skills audit & development of a database of Refugee academic qualifications;
• Assistance with registration at tertiary institutions (Universities and Colleges);
• Advocacy work with employers and universities.
The overall feedback from ARESTA beneficiaries of counseling is that they are better able to care for themselves and their families, both economically and psychosocially.
2. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRAINING ACTIVITIES
English classes are one of ARESTA's core programmes. ARESTA teaches English Classes at the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels. English Language is a critical skill needed by refugees at the entry point; English language is the gate-way to survival for refugees and asylums seekers in South Africa. The English language opens the door in understanding the South African society.
There is a growing need and demand for English Language Training offered by ARESTA. Increased numbers of applicants want to gain English language skills for them to be able to go for further studies or seek for better employment. In the knowledge that very few opportunities for Refugee English language training are available in Cape Town, ARESTA is trying to empower Refugees and accommodate as many of them under its limited / existing English classes.
Furthermore, ARESTA has entered into a partnership with the Western Cape Department of Education. Under the partnership, ARESTA is receiving English, Literacy and Communications teaching curriculum support from Education Management & Development Centre (EMDC), Department of Education.
English Courses in ARESTA's premises
ARESTA is the only organization in Cape Town offering classes over an extended period. There is a growing need and demand for ARESTA's English classes.
• 2 intakes per year
February to June
July to November
• Beginner Level (Group A)
Monday mornings: 11:00-14:00
Wednesday mornings: 11:00-14:00
• Beginner Level (Group B)
Tuesday mornings: 11:00-14:00
Thursday mornings: 11:00-14:00
• Beginner Level (Group C) at Retreat Public Library
Wednesday afternoons: 14:00-17:00
Friday mornings: 10:00-13:00
• Intermediate Level
Tuesday mornings: 10:00-13:00
Thursday mornings: 10:00-13:00
• Advanced Level
Monday mornings: 9:00-12:00
Wednesday mornings: 9:00-12:00
English Classes at Maitland High School
ARESTA offers the English teaching support to asylums seekers and refugee learners at Maitland High School. Our priority for 2009/10 is to address obstacles and provide learning support for children of refugees, asylums seekers and economic migrants in Western Cape schools.
In 2009, ARESTA continue to offer "remedial" English and general learning skills classes to grade 8's and 9's on Tuesday afternoons and Grade 10-12's on Thursday afternoons.
Significance of support:
1. The educator concentrates on these learners as they often enter schools at a disadvantage and experience extreme barriers to learning (chunks of missing education, psychological and linguistic barriers);
2. The educator seeks to understand (and perhaps even assist in removing) some of the barriers that such children face daily that hinder their access and participation in their fundamental human right to "inclusive" education. It is hoped that the understanding of the impact of these barriers and corresponding learning support programmes may be applied to other Western Cape schools.
English Courses at Inlingua Language Training Centre
ARESTA has developed strong links with an independent training centre, called Inlingua Language Training Centre. Their trainees in TEFL - Teaching English as a Foreigner Language- teach our learners advanced English classes.
They are a group of nine women from the Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Rwanda. They first started learning English at ARESTA in 2005, and then learnt beading skills, which could be used to make products to sell and to improve their livelihoods and help support their families. In addition to improving their beading skills, they have decided to make their beading group a small business, which they call the Amazing Beadwork Cooperative. It has been a uniquely fascinating and rewarding exercise.
Informal Language Learning
Formal English classes often fail to offer the opportunity for students to spend valuable social time together, and with their teacher. This time is important in terms of establishing a group identity, learning to feel comfortable in a class environment, and practicing the words they are learning. It allows this informal contact so necessary for successful language learning.
Furthermore, learning a skill, which almost instantly produces something beautiful, engenders students with a sense of confidence and achievement, which also encourages better language acquisition.
Skills Training
For the last 18 months the group has been finding orders and producing large quantities, with the assistance of the beadwork teacher. They make a variety of products, including jewellery and homewares, using multiple and often complex techniques, and a high standard of design. It is felt that the group members have now reached a point where they are able to take charge of group organization more.
With additional funding, our priorities would be to train women in establishing effective cooperatives for the group, develop a professional website and brochure, and work towards becoming a certified Fair Trade producer group.
Marketing Bases
In addition to beading skills, students are encouraged to think about the marketing and sales of their products, especially the basic skills of costing, pricing, and customer relations. After the beading lessons are over, a short duration of the training sessions will focus on the English vocabulary students need to sell their items successfully.
Group members have recently undergone a constitution writing process with assistance from a post-graduate group of Anthropology students from the University of Cape Town. Now the group can begin in earnest to run a sustainable and profitable business.
If you are interested in purchasing beadwork from them, please contact the group teacher, Anna Richerby, on annanomsa@gmail.com
4. REFUGEE RIGHTS AWARENESS CAMPAIGN, EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY
Refugee Rights Peer Educators go to the various Cape Town Refugee Service Providers and the Department of Home Affairs to interact with and provide information for Refugees and Asylum seekers while these are waiting for the various services. Leaflets on basic information are handed out and ARESTA staff and volunteers are available for answering questions.
Based on the current and past success and increased demand of ARESTA interventions (activities and services) as well as the recent xenophobic attacks on foreigners' nationals in South Africa, ARESTA has defined new orientations and strategic objectives for its Refugee Rights Awareness Campaign, Education and Advocacy.
Important elements of such a strategy would include:
• Addressing the source of conflict and causes of xenophobic attacks in communities;
• Strengthening mechanisms of conflict prevention and resolution in communities and empower local government to deal with such conflicts;
• Engaging with civil society to jointly find solutions to some of the causal factors of xenophobic violence;
• Public Education and Information campaign on Refugee Human Rights;
• Mechanisms to reintegrate those displaced by xenophobic violence back into the communities including structures to guarantee their safety on return;
• Support the inclusion of non-nationals in community structures such as Community Policing Forums so that such conflicts can be addressed at a local level before they escalate.
Furthermore, ARESTA would like to embark on a civil education programme in schools, communities and for the youth to educate and create awareness that combats xenophobic tendencies. A culture-based programme with special focus on school-going children to cultivate tolerance and understanding of foreign cultures is desperately needed. We are designing the programme from the similar model of Alexandra Pan-African Carnival.
"Targeted school will be divided into three groups of 25 pupils. The groups then adopt an African country; elect a president and a cabinet. The children are taught their adopted country's language, symbols, rituals, traditions, food and dress". The groups will showcase the uniqueness of each country at a Cape Town Carnival during December each year.
5. ART & CREATIVE EXPRESSION
ARESTA's Art & Creative Expression workshop is a project introduced to compliment our Literacy and lifeskills programmes under the umbrella of our self-reliance & income generation activities.
The painting class provides students with a safe space to develop artistic skills. They are free to apply the technique taught by the teacher the way they want. The class is quite efficient in so far as it gives students a break from their daily lives, for them to change their mind and to discover that they have skills and can be creative. Art classes can be a therapy that helps them to be more self confident. The teacher's open and cheering attitude encourages them to be so.
Painting Sessions are incredibly therapeutic, through these Art Sessions, the individual shows strengthens and clearly is open to processing self.
Activities for 2009
• Complete an annual calendar that depicts our value and vision at ARESTA;
• A photography book for the corporate world, themes relevant to our times and experiences;
• Exhibition of art works at Cape Town annual festivals.
The activity is very effective for students with confirmed skills by leading them to find a job.
In 2009, ARESTA is planning to create income generating activities by organizing exhibitions, connecting with art centres and galleries, linking to craft markets and providing products development & business skills training.
6. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE
Core to this programme is the provision of progression route to employment and/or further education. The Project provides refugees and asylum seekers the opportunities to connect with other further training and education institutions for career prospects and job opportunities.
ARESTA teaches Introduction to Computer (Software and Hardware) for a duration of 3 months at the first level. The Second level consist to teach the Advanced Microsoft Office (MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, ...) and Introduction to Database (Microsoft Access). The third Level is A+ Computer Technician Training for a duration of 6 months.
Central to the training are:
• Confidence Building;
• Access to Basic & Advanced Computer and Internet Skills;
• CV Writing and Interview Skills;
• Basic Employability Skills.
7. HIV/AIDS, LIFESKILLS TRAINING AND GENDER AWARENESS WORKSHOPS
ARESTA organizes HIV/AIDS and Gender Awareness Workshops for the Refugees attending its courses and training.
The purpose of the activity is to contribute to the fight against HIV/AIDS scourge by improving the quality of life of the infected and affected, and building up capacity among the Refugee community, so that they become able to care for the affected and infected and deal with the effects of HIV/AIDS and its manifestations.
In 2009, these workshops will include a Gender awareness part by developing an understanding of the social constructs of gender orientation and fighting against domestic violence.
8. RESEARCH AND INFORMATION
ARESTA has enhanced the research and information on security and development activities in various countries of origin of Refugees and Asylum seekers, to develop appropriate programmes for counseling purposes. ARESTA promotes the voluntary repatriation as alternative to local integration.Thanks to researches conducted, we offer counseling and training that are relevant to refugee home countries.
ARESTA also conducts research on voluntary repatriation operations in the world, especially on the reasons (stumbling blocks) why Refugees don't make the decision to go back to their home countries. ARESTA's research outcomes provide well-documented research and information to the UNHCR and the South African Government, among others.
9. INTERN / VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME
The goal of ARESTA Volunteers is to place energetic and motivated volunteers throughout the Cape Town network of Refugee service providers. This gives volunteer's desired experience of working in small NGOs and with Refugees, while at the same time providing the network with human resources, expertise and time, to fill tasks otherwise not accomplished. Volunteers are a valuable resource for innovation and research to enhance our programmes.
As the interns' time spent with the organization is part of the field work required to complete their academic Degree, we involve them in systematic researches on Refugees' issues in South Africa, the African continent and the world. Their researches' outcomes are beneficial to ARESTA. We use their recommendations for our Strategic Planning and Programmes reviews. Interns' work is of great value in our diligence process and ongoing project evaluation.
Any person interested in becoming a part of ARESTA's volunteers program should contact ARESTA to speak with the volunteer manager or e-mail: coordinator@aresta.org.za
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