By: Foday Manneh
The House of Hope: The Gambia, on Thursday, September 22, 2022, graduated over 40 young Gambians who have completed one-year courses on various levels of the German-Dutch language.
There are many reasons why people, particularly the young, migrate. Adding to these factors, it is also important to note the challenges facing immigrants upon arriving in Europe; among them is the language barrier.
The HoH launched its project in 2019 to train and prepare aspiring migrants to Europe on free German language courses for more accessible and successful integration.
Sanna B. Sabally, the Country Coordinator of the HoH, says the project, which intends to combat irregular migration, is beyond helping the graduates to just travel to German.
“Most aspire to understand the language to become tourist guides, teachers, translators, interpreters, and some want to be in the foreign department,” Sabally said.
The project, funded by the Asyl Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) of the European Union (EU), aims to provide traveling opportunities for graduates who want to further their education in Germany; according to Sabally, this would be made accessible on gratis with few requirements.
“If they (students) pass their exams in this language course to a particular level, they will want to further in Germany to become a nurse for an instant, they will go to Dakar in the German institute to do another examination.”
“If they pass that, they will bring that certificate to us (HoH) to secure a school for them. Then, we will inform the person of any success through a prepared contract. If they agree to the contract, then we send it back to the institute,” Sabally added.
“Then the student will bring his national documents with all the language course certificates he had for a Visa application,”
“If he is issued a Visa but has a problem with buying a flight ticket which is not part of the package, the institution will buy the ticket for the person, and he can pay in installments when he arrives in Germany.” He outlined.
House of Hope under Freundeskreis Asyl: Karlsruhe, a German Human Rights Organization, has in this badge trained forty-six (46) students on four (4) levels of the language course, which includes A1, A2, B1, and Alpha Course.
