Know your Neighbour
Connecting people from different communities
Know Your Neighbor (KYN) aims at bringing together refugees and locals through different digital and “pen friend” channels in the views of helping them connect on a personal level.
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Know Your Neighbour : how to support refugees by communicating with them
Written by Xiaomang LAN,
Published on 12.07.2018,
READ TIME Approx. 3 minutes
European Refugee crisis has sharped the creativity of different forms of volunteer groups around the world to find new ways to help the people who escaped from war, violence and poverty. A shelter and a hot meal are not the only things that the refugees need to struggle for once they arrived in Europe. Although there is a growing awareness of refugee integration, many challenges remain due to the lack of the direct communication and interaction between refugees and local community. This is how a group of Sciences Po students decided to create an alternative way to improve the regional integration in deeper level: Know Your Neighbour program, which integrates refugees by connecting them with locals, on a personal level.
The idea behind KYN’s service is that refugee and locals are close communities that should be linked based on understanding, trust and respect. Meeting and communicating is the simplest yet most practical way to achieve this goal. The KYN therefore organises meetings and small-scale workshops on weekly basis. The team has English/Arabic translator which helps the meeting groups feel more comfortable in exchanging ideas and sharing emotions.
Ph: Darren Calabrese
A recent meeting organised by them was between a woman from Syria, mother of 2, and a French woman who also have 2 high school children. The team matched these two people given on the expressed need of the Syrian woman in getting information of French education for her kids. The meeting ended up not only about learning specific information, but was naturally developed into a casual talk between the two sharing life experiences. As told by the team member of KYN, this is common case that the people were matched according to needs but in the end shared much with each other. The team believes that communication on personal level is the best way to enhance the social link, eliminate prejudice and facilitate the integration.
Ph: Darren Calabrese
The work of KYN is made easier with the use of social media. As the team puts emphasis on the digital communication from the beginning, it has built up considerable online social networks. Its Facebook page is always updated with video clips of recent meetings with the description both in English and Arabic, attracting hundreds of people to comment and share. As a group of young volunteers, KYN team brings fresh blood to the volunteer community in France. It appreciates the power of digital communication and encourages more people to engage in their integration program online and offline.
Related Subjects: Refugee Integration, Support refugee, Social links
Keywords: Refugees, support, meetings, communicating, KnowYourNeighbour, KYN