Longdenville Community Centre upgraded as part of Inclusive Cities project

The Longdenville Community Centre, Chaguanas is being improved as part of the Inclusive Cities project promoted by the UN.

The project is part of the solidarity communities programme carried out by UNHabitat, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), supported by the European Union, its local link La Casita and the organisations Ciudad de Bolsillo from Chile and Oficio Colectivo from Costa Rica.

The project is carried out at the regional level for Latin America and the Caribbean in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Panama and TT.

Adriana Plata, a UNHabitat specialist, told Newsday this project was carried out in ten towns and cities in these six countries, with Chaguanas being the one selected by TT.

“What the project seeks is to promote solutions towards the effective integration of refugees and migrants in these cities. We work in the cities so that they are strong and organised to integrate migrants and they are added values for the development of these communities and cities."

The project manages data and information from cities and migrants to focus solutions and build intervention plans at a territorial scale.

“Last year we were here and together with the community we analysed the ideas and proposals to make in the plan. From there we began to carry out socio-cultural activities for integration, workshops with boys and girls, training workshops on issues of human mobility and planning, muralism, fairs and attention and orientation and are complemented by the physical improvements of the community centre. "

Since last week, the work team has been carrying out the improvements, which include: adapting the basketball court, the playground, exterior painting, constructing a recreation and meeting area and painting a mural and messages in English and Spanish about integration and teamwork.

Giselle Cox, president of the Freely Give Foundation of Longdenville, said her community is grateful and proud to be part of the project and receive UNHCR's support as partners.

“It is a space for migrant and local children who can share and educate themselves together for the common good. "We have 53 Venezuelan and 40 local children living around the Longdenville community.

"It is a free centre to educate children. We have a school for them, with the support of different social and learning organisations. In the morning the migrant children come and then in the afternoon the locals arrive. On Saturdays they do activities together. They learn English and Spanish, games and recreational activities,”

Jonathan Mc Carter-White, project manager of the community centre, said the Freely Give Foundation has several projects whose main objective is to support the integration of local and migrant children as well as their families, to end xenophobia and ensure both locals and migrants know they have equal opportunities to live together for the common welfare.

The centre offers classes in language, culture, history and recreational and sports activities.

“We want to involve family members with the activities so that they also feel part of the programmes and of the same community for individual and group joint development.”

Also, the foundation collects bags of food and supplies to deliver to those most in need.

"We are working on including these families in employment and social opportunities. It is a great integration job we hope to improve and expand now with these improvements to the centre," he said.

Andreina Briceño Ventura-Brown, director of La Casita, said this type of project allows organisations to welcome the communities of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and locals who live in the area.

“We realised the local community and migrants use the spaces, and now with these projects there can be activities for integration.”

"I was personally in Colombia participating in inclusive community forums to talk about the projects in each country and explain the needs, experiences and proposals for migrant communities in these cities,"

She said it is an important project to ensure migration is seen as an opportunity and not as a problem.