A sign board pointing in the direction of the Berlin Immigration Office in Berlin/Photo: AfricanCourierMedia

Community initiative supports new African immigrants in Berlin

A project to support recent migrants from Africa in Berlin, including refugees and asylum-seekers as well as those displaced by the war in Ukraine, relaunches on 15 May.

Implemented by German-African Initiative for Development and Integration gUG, a non-profit social organisation, YANA Berlin II (YANA for You are not alone in Berlin) assists the African migrants by providing them important information that helps them to find their way around in their new environment.

The project, supported by the Türkischer Bund Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB) under its Kaleidoskop funding program, comprises a hotline, a series of online information sessions and a twice-weekly in-person consultation session.

TBB works together with state institutions and other organisations for the legal, social and political equality and treatment of people with migration experience

YANA II, which runs from 15 May to 15 October, seeks to help new arrivals, especially refugees and asylum-seekers, overcome the initial confusion and uncertainties that characterise a new beginning in a foreign land.

The project features online information sessions to deal, with the help experts, with issues pertinent to the situation of new comers, such as legal residency, where to learn German, access to opportunities for training and education, employment and how to handle health issues, among others.

“We seek to support African asylum-seekers and other newly-arrived migrants as they tackle the challenges that confront new comers in Berlin,” Femi Awoniyi, the project manager, said.

“YANA would like to be the friend of the new arrival from Africa as they settle down in Berlin,” he added.

“We support them to address issues of how they can establish themselves here. So that they can act independently and self-confidently as they navigate the challenges that are unavoidable when settling down in a new country.”

The project which debuted last year, also with the support of the TBB, seeks to establish itself as the first port of call for new arrivals from Africa in the German capital city.

Larry Bello

For further information about YANA Berlin, contact:
WhatsApp: 0176 84980470
Email: info@gaidi.de
Web: www.gaidi.de

About GAIDI gUG
The German-African Initiative for Development and Integration gUG supports the integration of refugees and new arrivals from Africa in Germany. It provides them with guidance by offering information. Its work is based on the experience of Femi Awoniyi. As a journalist and editor-in-chief of The African Courier, he has been reporting on the topics of flight, migration and integration for more than 25 years. And he has been providing voluntary integration support for many years through his participation in various projects.

About TBB
The Türkischer Bund in Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. (TBB) is a non-partisan umbrella organisation of organisations and individuals. It currently has 37 member organisations and 86 individual members.
As a migrant organisation, the TBB works together with state institutions and other organisations for the legal, social and political equality and treatment of people with migration experience, as well as for the peaceful coexistence and solidarity of all people in Berlin and Brandenburg.

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