📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
The Rixensart Refugees Centre accommodates people who have asked for asylum in Belgium. Many of them fled from war or persecution. Before these people may start their new lives, their refugees status has to be proven and accepted. While waiting for the documents that will enable them to remain legally in our country, the immigrants are accommodated in this centre in the Brussels vicinity.
People living there await the solution concerning their administrative status. They never know what tomorrow may bring to them.
Therefore, residents often found themselves overwhelmed by feelings of relief and anguish, hope and disappointment. The life of Rixensart Asylum seeker Centre reflects these individual dramas and big international tensions.
Website (available in English): http://www.fedasil.be
💼 What the programme involves
The volunteers will give a hand and a fresh air to the Centre’s animation team – sportive or social games, billiard, movie clubs, fitness for women, football tournament, craft etc.
To a lesser extent and depending on the weather, your team could have some activities as painting inside or maintenance of the park.
They will be required to get actively involved in the daily life of the Centre. Half of the time will be devoted to proposals of activities for children and adults (according with the population currently present in the Centre).
The management team of the centre is very well used to work with volunteers as they have been hosting this workcamp for several years.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Volunteers will be lodged in a common room (dormitory) in a building next to the central one. Showers are accessible in a central building.
Food
Still to be confirmed
📍 About the location
Rixensart is located in the Brabant Walloon province, 25 km from Brussels and 7 km from Wavre. The zone is highly urbanised and has all the usual conveniences, although, in the past, it used to be a rural and agricultural area. Thus, Rixensart still keeps its countryside charm but one can feel the proximity of Brussels (40 minutes by train, 20 by car). Refugees Centre is located outside the town centre, but in a walking distance from the famous local lake Genval, cinema, shops, supermarkets, train station. Website (in French): http://www.rixensart.be
ℹ️ Additional information
The volunteers are required to have basic knowledge of French. To write a short motivation letter in French and to answer a short questionnaire will be required.
Volunteers with knowledge of animation (songs, music, games, dance…) and small group dynamic are very much welcomed.
In addition, it is recommended that they have an idea about the policy concerning refugees in their own country, what the public image of the refugees is there, the place that is assigned for them. Some of these issues might be put on the table during the evenings. This kind of workcamp is a very rich personal and human experience.
Alcohol is formally prohibited in the Centre.
Kids are quite fluent in French thanks to school, adults take longer time to learn foreign language. The languages used among the residents are very different – French, Russian, English, German… more than 15 in general and depend on current presence of residents.