Click here to read testimonies already given by our members

YOUR EVIDENCE IS NEEDED NOW!

INVITATION TO BE PART OF OUR ‘SKILLED’ PROJECT

• Does your current job match the one you had back home?
  
• Are you using the skills or qualifications you gained back home?
  
• Have you managed to find employment?
• What support have you received to find a job where you can use your skills?
  
• Do you have any recommendations about what would be more effective support?

We need to hear about your own experience, so that we can highlight the specific problems faced by Refugees in finding work which uses their skills. We know many people are unemployed or ‘under-employed’ here in the North East region. And the project will evidence the impact this has on your lives and the loss of skills it represents to the region’s economy.

You can: 

• Be part of the photography project that will show portraits of Refugees alongside their testimony about finding work. The photographs will show the human face behind the issue.
• Tell us your own personal story about the difficulties you have had in finding the right job here. You can use our voice recorder or complete our survey form
• We do not need to use your name, it is your story which is valuable

Regional Refugee Forum member and volunteer, Panganai Svotwa, is leading our Skilled Project. Once a manager of a large retail business, he is now studying photography and using his skills to create a photographic exhibition to highlight the problems faced by Refugees in finding the right jobs, which will be shown to policy makers and service providers relating to skills and employment.  

We will make a report from the evidence you contribute and present it to Job Centre Plus, the Learning & Skills Council, Local Authority Employment & Skills Board, Chamber of Commerce and the Regional Economic Development Agency. So that they can understand the barriers faced by Refugees and look at ways to remove them.

To get involved or for more information please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it   or telephone our office on 0191 423 6255This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Panganai is a member of NESAS, the North East Southern African Society. NESAS is a member of the Regional Refugee Forum North East