Your daily inspiration: Engineers4Refugees

In the past months, you must have noticed the big amount of refugees requesting asylum in Europe. How challenging the issue might be for Europa, at the same time, this refugee crisis is a source of inspiration. It gives people the opportunity to act. And that is what’s happening: all around you people are taking initiative to make a change, also at the TU Delft. We would like to introduce you to: Engineers4Refugees.

A few TU Delft students thought it was their responsibility to act up. They founded Engineers4Refugees, promoted themselves and held information meetings. Around 50 engineers joined hands to develop a language and culture course for refugees. Together with ‘Vluchtelingenwerk NL’ and ‘Trainingen NL’, an accelerated language course was developed, with additional culture modules. Of course, modules about technology are also part of the programme. The TU Delft facilitates the classroom, food and drinks, while the students help with the culture lessons. The first course took place last week (see pictures), at the 6th of April, and was a big success!

Some numbers: in 2007, before the refugee crisis, around 250.000 asylum requests were registered annually (UNHCR, 2009). In 2015, 800.000 requests were registered in Europe (BBC, 2016). The average number of refugees European countries take in per 100.000 inhabitants is 260. The Netherlands is slightly above this with 266 refugees per 100.000 inhabitants. 16.500 asylum requests have been granted in 2015 in the Netherlands, (BBC, 2016), a little over 25% of the 59.000 requests registered (Trouw, 2016). This year, 2016, around 100.000 refugees are expected to request asylum in the Netherlands.

Do you want to know more, or help out? Check their Facebook page.