Paris branch

Created in 2017, the Watizat Paris branch is the oldest in our association. The founders wanted to create a project where they provided access to information for asylum seekers through a guide. After working on the ground for a year closely with the people they wanted to help, the first guide was made in March, 2018 and has been updated and printed every month since. In 2019, the guide was changed to include all refugees. This meant adding information for beneficiaries of international protection, undocumented immigrants, and statless peoples.

The permanent team is composed of a salaried coordinator of the branch as well as two people in ‘service civique’ (government interns). Additionally, about twenty volunteers who are legal professionals, translators, social workers, and designers help in the daily tasks of the branch and in the guide’s monthly update.

• Being up to date and updating the guide: every month, we contact our references in the guide and update the hours, addresses, and changes in service. The guide is regularly modified – in terms of content and design – to better it from the previous version.

• Printing the guide: every month, the guides are printed, folded, and stapled thanks to our generous printer who gives us special rates.

• Distributing the guide to refugees and organizations who order it: As a team, we organize weekly at the Watizat guidance offices and at our home office at Austerlitz. The objective of the guidance offices is to circulate and make available our resources to Paris and its surrounding areas; not only the guide, but also 505 migrants, the Watizat youtube channel, our newsletter, etc… The guide is also ordered in print by our partner associations that use it daily in helping refugees.

• Translating: the guide is available in five languages at this moment: French, English, Modern Standard Arabic, Dari, and Pashto.

• Training: since 2021, Watizat created a training program that acts as an orientation that explains information pertinent to refugees and the services local organizations render them. These trainings are for our volunteers and those from other organizations that work closely with refugees in Paris.

• The training’s content: These trainings give a solid base of understanding to the participants and allow them the confidence and tools necessary to guide refugees. An informational refugee guide, a training packet, and complimentary practical tools are systematically distributed to the participants.