Fundão, Portugal, Dec. 16, 2024 (Lusa) - The municipality of Fundão presented its Guide for the Integration and Reception of Refugees on Monday, a tool that draws on the experience of three projects to guide and help other people and organisations facing the same difficulties.
According to Alcina Cerdeira, Fundão's councillor for Social Action, the document is "a strategic tool" that can be an important support, with the necessary adaptations, for other organisations in Portugal or abroad.
The councillor emphasised that when Fundão started doing this work, it had no guide and had to define the guidelines as the needs arose and hopes that the solutions found and the obstacles overcome can serve as inspiration for other municipalities or entities.
"This guide is very comprehensive in terms of effective support, it mirrors various experiences and will serve as a strategy for other people. We want it to help and inspire other organisations and the community in general," said Alcina Cerdeira, speaking to the Lusa news agency.
She emphasised that this is not the guide for Fundão in the district of Castelo Branco because it is based not only on the municipality's reception experiences but also on the cases of AMURT (Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team) in Paul, in the municipality of Covilhã, and in Poland.
"It's very important because it shows the effectiveness of these approaches, adapted to local contexts, which means that this methodology used in the guide can also be replicated and adapted to other contexts," emphasised Alcina Cerdeira.
As well as testimonies from refugees and the impact that the set of actions has had on reception, the document includes individual stories, learning challenges and respect for each person's culture, the councillor said.
The guide also lists the rights and support a person can access, such as access to health care, training, housing, employability issues, and the inclusion of children in school or the return programme.
"That's exactly what a guide is, which serves as a guideline for finding solutions to some problems that we've already overcome because we've already been building, and this can be adapted to many territories, many contexts, in Portugal and around the world," said the councillor.
According to Alcina Cerdeira, the aim is "for others to be inspired and follow it or, at least, to serve as a guide" for those working with the inclusion of migrants, and she emphasised that the guide "is not a one-size-fits-all thing".
The municipality of Fundão currently has residents of 77 nationalities. Alcina Cerdeira recalled that the municipality began welcoming refugees in 2016 by creating accommodation for seasonal workers. Since 2018, there has been a structure for welcoming refugees, which includes a "holistic action plan" with a first-line space and, at the same time, a multidisciplinary team that accompanies people in the process of autonomisation.
The Guide results from a partnership between AMURT and the municipality of Fundão as part of the PAAIR project (Action Plan for the Reception and Integration of Refugees), co-financed by the Erasmus+ programme.
The presentation is part of the International Migration Day activities, which include a series of activities until Thursday.
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