Local community:
The St. Elisabeth Haus is situated in Manderfeld, a small village of 400 inhabitants, close to the borders of Germany and Luxembourg. Manderfeld is situated in the German Speaking Community of Belgium. The German-speaking Belgians form a minority of approximately 70.000 inhabitants. German is the native language in this area, but the majority of the population is bilingual (French). The nearest cities are Luettich, Aachen, Maastricht, Cologne and Trier. The asylum-seeking centre is situated in a rural region.

Project Description:
The St. Elisabeth Haus is an asylum-seeker centre, which accommodates up to 185 inhabitants of different cultures, nationalities and religions. The Belgian Red Cross is responsible for the administration of the house as well as for the welcoming and accompaniment of the refugees in their difficult life situation. It is the main aim of this institution to offer the inhabitants a safe residence for the duration of four to six months.

Description of the organisation:
Since October 2001 the St. Elisabeth Haus accommodates refugees from many different countries. The capacity of the house amounts 185 beds, whereby usually approximately 150 inhabitants live in the centre. 23 employees take care of the welcoming and accompaniment of the inhabitants. Apart from the welcoming of new refugees the accompaniment is the most important task of the centre, including the following working fields: catering, lodgement, medical services, school attendance, the administrative asylum procedure, leisure time...

The respectful handling of the inhabitants plays a central role in the work of the centre.

Volunteer's tasks:
Since the major task of the asylum-seekers centre is the accompaniment of the refugees, this will also be the main task of the volunteer. That means that the volunteer will take care of firm services in the daily work (serving meals, distribution of sheets and the sanitary article, working on the reception desk...)

Another important task of the house is the occupation of the refugees by organizing several activities. Likewise in this working field lies a further focus of the volunteer's work. Hereby the volunteer may use all her creativity and fantasy for developing activities, which may take place inside the house as well as outside. The offer of the different activities reaches from sport, culture to language courses up to computer courses or manual work.

The volunteer can accompany in the existing activities but also has the possibility of becoming active herself and come up with own ideas for activities. There also is the opportunity to develop and realize an own project.

The volunteer works independently. However she will never be alone in the house, which means that there will always be a contact person she can consult.

The volunteer's working day starts at 9.00 o'clock and ends at 17.00 o'clock. On own desire she can also take over the service of the early shift or the late shift. The routine of the volunteer's day looks as follows:
9:00 a.m.: arrival and meeting with the colleagues of the early shift
9.30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Service at the reception desk
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.: Preparation of activities
12:00 a.m. - 12:40: Serving meals
12:40 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.: Lunch time (meal in the centre)
1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.: Preparation and realization of activities or own projects
5 p.m.: end of workday

Criteria for the selection of the volunteer:
We have a very important criterion for selecting a volunteer. It is very important to us that the volunteers are open to other people and strange cultures. Connected therewith, is of course that the volunteers have a particular interest in the problems of escape, asylum, migration,… They should be curious and ready to learn. Criteria such as nationality, gender, age or religion are very subordinate in the selection procedure.

The goals of the project are on one hand the receipt of the asylum-seeking persons and on the other hand the accompaniment of them.
Here, the seven principles of the red cross play an important role: neutrality, humanity, impartiality, unity, voluntariness, universality and independence

For the accompaignment of the inhabitants, we are offering the following services:

- medical care: The primary medical care is ensured by one nurse in the sick-station

-accompaignment of the asylum-procedure:
4 staff-members are accompaigning the inhabitants in their processes.
It consists in an individual accompaignment concerning the minimization of linguistic problems, to maintain contacts (e.g. to lawyers), keeping dates, ...

- food supply: in a big kitchen, 3 cooks (with some of the inhabitants) are preparing three meals/day.

-clothes: in the centre's second hand shop the inhabitants have the possibility to get clothes (for free)

- scolar accompaignment: there is a kindergarden in the house as well as a class for pupils of primary school. The "older-ones" are going to the secondary-level school in St.Vith. We are offering linguistic and computer-trainings for the adults.

- lodging: on their arival the inhabitants get a room.

- animations and activities: Everyday there are activitivities to "shorten" the time for the inhabitants. There are permanent offers: TV- and video-room, gaming-corner, fitness-corner, billiard, cyber-café, table tennis, football-field, library,... and furthermore several activities inside and outside of the house: volleyball, manufacturing, patchwork, workshops (wood, foto), swimming, cinema, theatre, playing music, cultural excursions, and many more.

All services and activities fall into the range of the staff. There are no setted limits concerning the choice of the different activities, neither to the asylum-seeking persons, nor to the staff-members. Many of the activities are performed by voluntary co-workers.