LAAMIGA
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Mission Statement
Laamiga is a women's charity based in London. We support Black, Asian, and minority ethnic refugee and migrant women to take steps towards gaining meaningful self-employment, business start ups and achieving financial independence.
About This Cause
Laamiga's aim is to give women the chance to realise their potential and support those who have the desire to be more financially independent. While they lack the knowledge and networks that will help them find suitable employment or business opportunities, they are often talented and experienced in their previous careers or countries of origin. Language, cultural and other social barriers mean they are often unaware of, and are less likely to access mainstream training, business and employment opportunities. Laamiga aims to break this cycle and enable women to reach their full potential. The uniqueness of Laamiga is regular one to one mentee/mentor meetings to provide motivation and holistic mentoring (including signposting to enable mentees to overcome any personal barriers to employment including health, finance, housing etc); and inspiring master classes and workshops from BAMER business women who act as role models. We also run specific projects, e.g. group mentoring where mentees hold discussions to support integration; arts and crafts sessions to learn English;and IT Training in partnership with a local training organisation. We are an organisation run by women for women: all Laamiga's trustees and all the mentors are women. At Laamigia's heart is confidence- building through the mentoring programme. Common issues faced by our mentees include: Unemployment/underemployment Low income Lone parenthood Domestic violence Immigration status Discrimination Harassment English language barrier Our mentors are women from diverse backgrounds, who have business experience, either through their own enterprise or as an employee. They are volunteering their time and expertise to support women in the local community. Most importantly, our mentors bring their passion, enthusiasm and commitment to support other women in achieving their goals and dreams. Every mentee/mentor relationship has its own unique story, here are a few: - after bringing up 5 children, Alys could not see how to re-enter the workforce. With mentoring support, improved English and IT skills, she is now confidently looking for volunteering opportunities to gain experience. - years of waiting for an asylum decision had caused Fatima to lose confidence and have very low morale. Mentoring helped her to re-find confidence to learn English, join support networks, actively manage her asylum application, and then start to look for work. - Halima came to the UK aged 5, and graduated with a degree in Business Studies. But she felt cultural and religious barriers made finding a job impossible. Being paired with a mentor from a very similar situation, who was in work and outgoing made a huge difference to Halima's confidence, and after help with applications and mock-interviews she successfully found work. - Sarah had struggled to find work apart from evening work cleaning offices. She was losing confidence, made worse by health issues. After working with a mentor to build a CV, and develop online skills for job-searching, she found translation work supporting refugee families and underprivileged children. She now aims to study for an interpreting diploma. The impacts of the growth in self-confidence and integration spread across the community, as mentees become role models for their children and others, take control of their own destiny, have reduced reliance on the state and benefits, and of course become economically active and take on voluntary activities.