[sulayman bah]

#2550

Hi fellows I am back to update you about few things

Like I said in my previous text that the first step I am working on is to bring together very talented migrants from different cities particularly Bologna to put my idea into practice. I have got one who studies law at the university of Bologna and he is ready to collaborate with me. Another friend of mine is doing his phd at the university of Valencia in Spain and he has also welcomed the idea. He said he can give support although he is too busy with research and other stuff. So far, it is moving smoothly.  Usually, I do meet CHRIS of mygrants who helps me abundantly. His support is huge. He is giving me all the technical assistance I need.

I hope to meet all my team workers soon, so I can start. Once this step is done we will put pen to paper by describing our initiative in detail after which we will meet cooperatives and councils of this territory to present the initiative to them. If we come to terms they will be paying us per hour for every meeting with each migrant or refugee. We will also be organizing events in which many talented migrants will be present to share their experience with the refugees who have newly arrived in Italy. They will get to know some of these talented migrants and they will build relations. I think it will create space for the refugees and migrants to be in contact with these talented people who were once in the reception centers like them. A lot of technology work is required in doing this job, so I am very convinced that Silicon Valley will be a powerful instrument for me.

I have good news! Guess what fellows? I am recently selected as a coordinator of an exchange programme in Germany which is financed by the European union community for Erasmus. I am the second coordinator. The main objective of the programme is to bring young Italians and migrants in Italy together so they can share ideas and culture by living together. It is an intercultural exchange amongst the participants. There will be different activities about culture. They will get to learn one another’s culture. There will be topics on migration. The asylum system in Germany and Italy will also be part of the topics. In my previous text, I have made mention of migrants moving to other European countries particularly to Germany without knowing the system there. Well this programme will help a lot of them to have a clue of how things are in Germany before finally moving there. You can follow the event on Facebook titled “tama taman”.

As you can see, this responsibility given to me is a greet move for my initiative. I am moving forward. Update you soon.

[sulayman bah]

#2531

I am sulayman bah. I am Gambian by origin. I currently live in Bologna, Italy. I came to Italy in 2014 to seek for an asylum protection. In 2015, I was given a humanitarian protection. I really thank Italy for such a gesture.

Shortly after I was given a protection, I won a grant called “unibo for refugees”. Having won this grant, I got enrolled in the university. Now I am a regular student. I am a second-year political science student. At the same time, I work as an interpreter, a translator and intercultural mediator. I work mostly in refugee reception centers, in the commission for asylum procedure interviews and sometimes in the court house of Bologna for appeals of asylum seekers whose asylum requests have rejected.

I like watching news and documentaries about politics. I studied at the Gambia college and I got a higher teacher’s certificate. I was immediately employed as a qualified teacher by the ministry of education of the Gambia Govt. I taught English and core science at Nioro Jataba/Sankandi high school from 2012 to May 2014, after which I left the Country because I could not get a scholarship to study at the university of the Gambia being an opposition to the previous regime which lost the December elections in 2016.

Now I am grateful to govt of Italy and the university of Bologna that I can pursue my studies which has always been my dream. I am very excited to study in Europe. Hard work pays. Yes, I agreed with this saying. It was never easy when I newly arrived in Italy because I could not read and write Italian. But guess what? After eight months my Italian was already good. My Italian was very fluent that it was incredible to many people. The coordinators of our reception center understood that I was hardworking, so they started giving me support. I met many kind people who wanted to help me continue my studies. Thanks to these people I am very fine in Italy now as I write this describtion.

However, I am okay now in Italy, but many other migrants are not. Making a choice is always very difficult. Many migrants are in very touching conditions because they lack a technical support to make concrete choices or decisions. It’s true that there are many associations, cooperatives and organizations that are involved in helping migrants but still something more can be done. The first choice many migrants make after getting their documents in Italy is going to other European countries because they believe there are no other options here. The ones who stay in Italy prefer looking for indecent jobs to learning a skill or a professional course.  Now most of them cannot even renew their documents because there have been some changes in the issuing of documents to migrants.

My objective is to create a support to these migrants once they arrive in Italy which is more technical. I would like to first create a forum online and unite all talented migrants who have made very good choices while they were in their reception centers. I am already one of them. I have started collaborating with others and we are putting some ideas together to bring solutions on the table.  The current idea we have is to organize events and meetings where migrants, especially asylum seekers can meet all talented migrants in different cities.

To conclude, I want most part of this initiative to be digital.  If I am selected for Silicon Valley 2018, I will learn more about digital work to facilitate my work.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by sulayman bah.

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