News

Leila Jaffar visiting Cyprus and Jordan, December 2011

In December 2011 Leila Jaffar will once again be visiting Cyprus and Jordan. If you are interested in meeting Leila or want to organize a workshop with her, contact us through info@jaffar.nl Or you can use the buttons on this page to request more info or have us call you back.

Change Makers training by Jaffar Consultancy

In 2009 and 2010 Jaffar Consultancy trained more than 200 volunteer members of the organizations of Refugee Organizations Netherlands VON on the theme "Dealing with honor-related violence.” In a two-day training that was carried out ten times by us last year for refugees from among others Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, participants discussed ways how refugee communities can discuss honor-related violence within their own communities. Part of the training dealt with the question how refugee organizations can cooperate in their local constituencies with professional bodies like the police and reporting centers. Jaffar Consultancy also wrote a methodological guide for use in these trainings.

See also the website of VON for more information( in Dutch) about the project Change Makers: www.vluchtelingenorganisaties.nl

"A promising start"

Opportunities for highly educated refugees at Dutch government ministries

Commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Interior Jaffar Consultancy conducted a number of training modules within the project "A promising start" during 2009 and 2010.  The track offered a special group of trainees the opportunity to work in a policy function for one or two year work experience in a ministry. The ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Social Affairs, Housing and Works and Water Management (RWS) took part in this project and offered jobs. The participants in this project - six women and seven men – were political refugees, legally residing in the Netherlands who had either in their country of origin or in  the Netherlands completed a university study at a bachelor or masters level. In their countries of origin, they usually had worked at their own professional level, but the flight and the asylum procedure which had taken several years had created a hiatus in their CV - sometimes filled with low-skilled jobs. Participants came from several central – and west-African countries like Burundi, Congo and Ghana but also from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Bosnia.

The aim of a 'Promising Start' was to help ensure that participants would once again get a job related to their level of education. Jaffar Consultancy provided the training components that dealt with  the personal competencies of the trainees. Also, some trainees were individually coached by Jaffar Consultancy.

A similar project which has started in 2009 is currently taking place at the Ministry of Watermanagement Rijkswaterstaat in Lelystad. Again, a group of around twelve highly qualified participants with a refugee background has been offered a job in various departments of RWS on a two year contract works. Training and coaching of these participants is done by us, usually in the form of Personal Training.

Presentation of the certificate "A Promising Start" to participant Zuberi Nzeyimana at the Ministry of Interior in The Hague (photo ROI)

Coaching and Diversity at the National Labor and Education Funds for the Governmental Sector A+O Rijk

In 2008 and 2009 Jaffar Consultancy was commissioned by the A+O Fund Rijk (National Labour and Education Funds for the Governmental Sector) to undertake a large two year project called "Coaching and Diversity”. At six ministries coaches and executives were trained intensively by Jaffar Consultancy in coaching and support of bi-cultural employees. The response from participants was overwhelmingly positive.

In June 2007 a kick-off meeting for this project was organized by the A+ O Fund . Click here for a report of the meeting. In March 2009 the final meeting took place. Click here for the report of that meeting. The reports are in Dutch.

The A +O  Fund has published a very informative and readable book about the project (in Dutch)  called “Coaching and Diversity”. You can click here for the publication. The book consists of  interviews with coaches and managers who participated in  the training of Jaffar Consultancy and a background article by Leila Jaffar and Radi Suudi of Jaffar Consultancy. It  gives a good picture of the project, the importance of diversity policies and the procedures of our consultancy firm.