PortfolioThe organisation operates from Cape Town’s central business district offering welfare, development and advocacy programmes for refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and local South Africans since 2002. Their mission is to foster the cultural, social and economic integration of migrants, refugees and South Africans into local society Starting with the Welcoming Programme, which distributed food and clothes in 1998, and then expanding to include a development agenda in 2003 and the establishment of a children’s home for abandoned and orphaned refugee children
named “Lawrence House” in 2005, the Fathers formed a secular non-government organisation to manage these projects.
The organisation receives around 2000 people each month to access their different services and is open Monday to Friday from 9.00 – 16.30. A Guest House for Responsible Tourism is housed on the top floor of the organisation, as an income generator as well as for enhanced networking opportunities. They have a team of 16 people and the revolving help of about 40 volunteers. In providing their assistance, they use a holistic approach that considers all basic needs and human rights The Advocacy Programme offers legal advice and practical assistance with a special focus on vulnerable individuals, with the aim to ensure that their rights are respected. While the programme takes on any kind of issues related to discrimination due to someone’s foreign nationality, the programme has a particular focus on the needs and protection of persons affected by xenophobic violence, disabled refugees and protection of unaccompanied refugee and migrant children. In addition to assisting individuals, the programme also conducts ‘higher level’ advocacy with the aim to change legislation and ensure the implementation of existing laws and procedures.
Volunteer Work | Internship
The Employment Access Programme falls within the Development Projects of the organisation. The aim of the project is to facilitate the socioeconomic integration of refugees, migrants and South Africans through the facilitation of their access to employment. Employment Access Programme interns are expected to take on and manage a small project or portfolio as well was working at the Employment Help Desk every morning. Interns work at the Employment Help Desk from 8:30am to 1:00pm from Monday to Friday.
Their duties are as follows:Assist clients to create & type CVs and cover letters; Create e-mail accounts; Post adverts for clients on job sites; Provide individual assistance to clients with employment-related phone, fax, and e-mail Services; Facilitate the PC lab for client job search and applications; Research suitable job adverts for their clients; Provide information on how to access work in certain categories & available skills Training; Assist the team to organize a monthly workshop programme; Capturing and collecting data to be entered and
updated in the database In the afternoon, 2:00pm to 4:30pm from Monday to Friday, interns take care of additional tasks or often manage their own project portfolio. These tasks and projects can be related to the Employment Help Desk, but are more likely related to one of the other projects of the Employment Access Programme. This project is chosen according to the interns abilities and interests as well as the project need. Previous volunteers, for example, conducted a sample at the Employment Help Desk to measure the impact of the project, created a database of available skills training in Cape Town, researched employment opportunities of foreign health professionals and engineers in South Africa, explored SETA (Sector Education and Training Authorities) landscape and researched scarce and critical skills or assisted with administration of the Foreign Educators Internship Project.