JSR Malta

The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international, Catholic organization with a mission to accompany, serve and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons. JRS undertakes services at national and regional levels, with the support of a regional office in Brussels, and an international office in Rome. Founded in November 1980 as a work of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Father Pedro Arrupe who was Father General at the time, was deeply moved by the plight of the Vietnamese boat people. JRS was born as a response to this crisis. JRS now works in 56 countries, providing assistance to refugees in camps and cities; individuals displaced within their own countries; and to those held in detention centers. The main areas of work are in the field of education, emergency assistance, healthcare, livelihood activities and social services. In Malta, JRS supports asylum seekers and migrants through legal support, psychosocial support, access to healthcare, access to education and basic integration support. Our clients are mainly asylum seekers living in the open centers run by the government and beneficiaries of protection living in the communities.

Since COVID-19 pandemic started, JRS staff started to see that a number of needs for basic support increased. Clients were struggling to access employment, transport and language classes. Because of this, at JRS we created the Basic Integration Support team.

This team is in many ways the first contact our clients have with JRS, on this service we provide support both inside the office and at the open centers where asylum seekers live. At JRS office (normally on Wednesdays and Fridays), students will be providing basic information about the asylum procedure, their rights and obligations, we support them to build their CV, look for jobs, English classes and bus cards. They will also be contacting our clients for follow up calls, checking with them how they are doing and supporting the team with some administrative tasks.

What will we do?

The students will accompany JRS staff to the open centers. Once a week they will be visiting an open center where minor asylum seekers live. Here they will be providing English classes and other “fun” activities. Another day of the week they will be visiting the open centers where adults live, to conduct workshops on English for employment as well as soft skills to access employment. Training will be provided in order to prepare the students to conduct these activities.

Any other activity that students might want to implement can be considered and discussed with them and the wider team.

These activities cannot be provided only by staff members as they require a lot of manpower to be implemented. These activities inside and outside the office have an aim to support our clients throughout the asylum journey.

We hope to provide activities that are useful for our clients and meaningful for the students. Through the list of tasks that the students will be undertaking, they will support JRS mission in Malta.

Schedule: Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 17:00 (there might be changes depending on the activities. These will be discussed and agreed upon with students. No more than 40 hours per week in any case.

We will meet with the selected students before their arrival, and after this, a 2-day training will be provided for the specific purposes of the Maltese context and the specific activities that the students will be doing. Students will be accompanied at all times.

Migrants and asylum seekers.

Common and compulsory training days. The group selected for the project will meet to share information with the organization before starting the project. A specific training calendar that addresses the identified needs will be specified for the month of June.

Shared apartment for volunteers.

The student assumes the management and payment of the transfers to the place of intervention.

Have a valid COVID passport. Meet the test requirements for entry into Malta at the time of travel.