Programmes & Services

CORE SERVICE

WNRAS services provided Wellington offer community based support to assist refugees resettle in New Zealand. It is known that people that have been tortured or traumatised may carry the effects of these experiences for many years.

Former refugees may have endured, organised violence, torture, harassment, imprisonment, witnessing violence, being involved in war situations and civil unrest, difficult escapes, refugee camp life, exile and migration.

• Why is the need for a WNRAS service at all?
• You may be experiencing these symptoms
• Treatment
• Training
• Referrals
• The Core WNRAS Service
• Interpreters
• Hours of Operation

• The NZ Government is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention.
• The NZ Government welcomes 750 refugees into New Zealand annually as part of a quota, up to 300 for family reunification, and about 200 asylum seekers.
• Many former refugees have suffered the loss of family and friends.
• Most of the former refugees have suffered from physical and/or mental trauma and many have also been survivors of torture.
• Most of the former refugees who arrive as part of the quota have been separated from close family members.
• Many former refugees have suffered from physical and/or and trauma, and may also have been survivors of torture.
• To raise community awareness of refugee torture and resettlement issues.
• To assist the psycho-social-resettlement of refugees.

As a former refugee you may be experiencing some of the following:

• body aches and pains.
• sleep problems and nightmares.
• recurrent memories and thoughts which are painful.
• feeling fearful, nervous or restless.
• feeling as if you are reliving past experiences.
• easily scared or startled for no obvious reason.
• frequent sadness, crying or feeling bad.
• withdrawal from social contact or other activities.
• avoidance of situations that may remind you of past experiences which were painful.
• loss of memory and concentration.
• poor appetite.
• guilt and anger.
• faintness, dizziness or weakness.

Treatment:

WNRAS provides community-based screening, assessment, treatment/therapy, and onward referral, and also medical reviews by a consultant psychiatrist. Care management included coordination of services from other agencies. Liaison/consultation takes place with general practitioners, mental health workers, and support workers (including ethnic community workers) to support community management of clients and the supervision of other staff.

The treatment methods used are eclectic and include CBT, Gestalt, narrative, problem solving, EMDR and other client-centred approaches appropriate to client needs and informed by cultural differences.

In the year  July 2010 to June 2011 the clients seen here came from the following countries of origin: Colombia 26%; Iraq 18%; Myanmar 16%; Ethiopia 13%; Eritrea 8%; Somalia 6%; other 13% (8 countries).
 

Referrals:

The Core WNRAS Service:

WNRAS employs a multidisciplinary team which provides a counselling and advocacy service for adults, children and families. As a client you can expect to:

• talk in confidence to someone who has an understanding of the issues involved in the refugee and exile experience.
• be referred to other health and medical services, with your consent.
• receive support in accessing other mainstream agencies involved in facilitating re-settlement.
• receive assistance with adaptation to life in New Zealand.

Interpreters:

• Interpreters are available for all counselling sessions.
• All interpreters are trained professionals.
• Confidentiality is assured.
• WNRAS contracts interpreters from Interpreting New Zealand.

Hours of Operation:

Location:

The WNRAS office is at 39 Webb Street. Outreach clinics operate in Porirua and the Hutt Valley.
If you want a map of our Wellington location, click here.

This service is confidential and free of charge to all refugees and those from a refugee type background.

OTHER SERVICES

Support:

This can take many forms but all former refugees who have been referred and accepted as clients of WNRAS will receive a range of support services. What these are will emerge from the counselling and could include advocating for their entitlements, e.g. government benefits; budgeting advice; legal matters; housing issues etc.

WNRAS employs staff who assist the counsellors with these various support services.

Training:

Training and education are available for professional staff of any agency working with refugees and migrants, as well as caregivers, and support staff. Training is provided by staff on issues of cultural differences, trauma, and cross-cultural mental health. Training can be provided to Government services (Hospitals), General Practitioners, other health professionals and the Social Services, plus health and social service professionals in the non-government sector.

PROGRAMMES

FICT  Programme Pilot

• Families in Cultural Transition (FICT) is a  programme developed by STARTTS in Sydney, Australia, an organisation that has a similar range of refugee services as WNRAS, obviously on a much larger scale.
• FICT is a ten module programme for refugees who have been in New Zealand less than two years. It is a group based programme designed to assist refugee families with the process associated in making a cultural transition.
• FICT modules are facilitated by bilingual facilitators.
• RAS invited the STARTTS FICT Training Manager to train ten bilingual facilitators and a senior staff member from each of Refugee Services Aotearoa NZ and Wellington RAS.
• The bilingual facilitators are equipped with a comprehensive package of resources to help groups of refugees deal better with the process of adjusting to their new home.
• FICT aims to:
  • reduce social isolation in refugee families
  • strengthen family relationships by providing relationship, communication and parenting skills
  • normalise symptoms and responses to migration and trauma
  • help early identification of more serious psychological problems as well as problems with family dynamics
  • develop capacities of refugee communities through training and support of bicultural facilitators.

Home Safety Programme

The Home Safety programme was adapted from a similar programme delivered to small refugee background groups in their own community by two facilitators, at least one of whom speaks the participation group's language.

The programme is a series of photos that show refugee families doing something wrong (e.g. no guard on an open fire) and then another photo doing it right (e.g. showing a guard to cover a fireplace). The photos show all aspects of home safety, including some outside, e.g. playing on the footpath; wearing helmets while riding bikes etc.

Samson Sahele the WNRAS Cross Cultural Advocate has developed the home safety programme, trained facilitators, and delivered the programme to a range of refugee background communities. The programme is now being developed in partnership with Refugee Services as part of their induction programme for new arrivals.

Tamariki Kahukura: The Rainbow Programme

The Tamariki Kahukura Programme supports refugee children to make the best possible start to resettlement in New Zealand. Whilst acknowledging the stresses inherent in the refugee experience and the settlement challenges facing refugee children and their families, the programme strongly emphasises the development of hope and a positive sense of the future.

Tamariki Kahukura is a school-based programme for 9 to 12 year olds. It requires collaboration between school staff and specialists with expertise in working with people from refugee backgrounds to strengthen children's learning capacity and emotional adjustment. The Programme also aims to foster stronger links between schools and parents of refugee children through specialised staff development and teacher-parent sessions. It is an early intervention measure designed to establish constructive relationships between children, schools and families with a view to building a platform for children's present and future educational success.

The Tamariki Kahukura Programme includes:

• A seven session structured arts-based programme for children.

• Three sessions for parents, designed as an adjunct to the core children's component.

• A programme briefing session and professional development component for teachers.

Books of Short Stories

WNRAS is very proud of its publication of the two books of short stories written by young former refugees-

• Earthless Trees published in 2008 comprised 11 short stories by 4 authors.

• Beyond the Dark Journey was published in December 2010 and is a collection of 27 short stories and poems by 8 young former refugees. Beyond the Dark Journey is still in print and can be purchased for $25 plus $5 postage. For details please click on Purchase Beyond the Dark Journey.

Art Project

Free to Fly 2010 was a one-day collaborative art project between WNRAS and Wellesley College- Eastbourne and St Bernadette's School- Naenae. It was broadly based around the theme, Free to Fly. Using personification of birds, participating pupils drew and then painted a work, which spoke of optimism and the idea that anything is possible. Pupils used manikins to draw the human form and study bird pictures before combining them to both illustrate the above theme. Their artwork was exhibited in the Multicultural Services Centre for 2 months. 30 children aged 9-12 years from both schools participated in the Free to Fly 2010 Art Project at the Wellesley College Art Room, under the guidance of Eve Warren the Wellesley College Art teacher. Owing to the success of the programme a similar programme is being held in 2011 involving refugee-background children from St Michael's School.

Refugee Youth Media Project

In 2010 WNRAS collaborated with ChangeMakers Refugee Forum to deliver the Refugee Youth Media Project. The objectives of the project were to:

• Allow young people from refugee backgrounds to tell real-life stories about their backgrounds, culture, faith, families, issues, hopes, dreams and. life in New Zealand.

• Promote awareness and understanding in the host community using the youth voice of refugee experiences in New Zealand also to promote understanding of youth issues amongst refugee communities and increase the value placed on youth input into community work.

• Teach young people from refugee backgrounds, skills in print media, TV, radio and online media.

• Improve refugee youth's critical media literacy skills.

The unique features of the Refugee Youth Media Project are:

• It is group-based - young refugee background people received hours of training on all aspects of media sills and understand how the local media addresses refugee's issues. Also it helps them cope with the cultural shock and the on-going trauma of adapting to a new culture.

• It targets the most marginalised, traumatised and faceless young refugee people in Wellington. Also, upon arrival in Wellington they are still trying to deal with the cultural shock of moving to a large city.

The programme was a huge success and another is being planned for late 2011/early 2012.