(09 September 2016) – Sponsoring refugees to help with their installation and integration is the raison d’être of the Live In Color association, which was launched just over a year ago in Liège, Belgium. To date, around one hundred people have been sponsored and the spirit of solidarity is strengthening.
Live In Color invites local people (the “sponsors”) to get involved during any of these three stages:
1) Accommodation (search, visits, negotiations with the landlord…) – experience shows that this is the most difficult phase;
2) Installation (furnishing the accommodation, administrative procedures at the municipality, the social assistance centre, health insurance, the bank, energy and communication providers … many of these tasks being new for the refugees);
3) Integration (developing social links, education, discovering the region and the socio-cultural environment, employment …).
One year and a lot of energy later, the results are impressive: one hundred refugees have been sponsored by one hundred volunteers, who provide one-off or occasional support.