The oldest refugee organization in the Netherlands
The UAF was founded in 1948 in response to the brutal suppression of the student uprising in Prague. A group of fifty Czech students fled to the Netherlands. The Dutch universities decided to set up an organization to help those students continue their education in the Netherlands. The organization was originally called the University Asylum Fund, the UAF. Today it is known as the Foundation for Refugee Students UAF.
Each year, the Foundation for Refugee Students uaf supports 3,300 refugees in the Netherlands to prepare for and undertake their education and find suitable employment in the Netherlands.
The UAF is an independent foundation that is able to carry out its work thanks to grants from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, an annual contribution from the Nationale Postcode Loterij (Dutch Lottery), and the donations and support of the public.
The Foundation for Refugee Students UAF maintains relationships with all parties that can play a role in the development of the talent of the refugee. UAF knows what a refugee needs in order to get viable employment on the Dutch labor market, what facilities are available for refugees, and what steps a refugee has to take in order to achieve economic self-sufficiency. Various organizations play a crucial role along the road to economic self-sufficiency, such as educational institutions, language institutes, local councils, employers, and other refugee organizations. UAF has a detailed knowledge of the fundraising market and knows where to get financial support. UAF is the spider at the center of the web, developing and strengthening relationships and creating links between all the different parties. A plan-based approach to relationship management is crucial in order to support refugees to achieve their full potential.
Why did you initiate a relationship management professionalization program?
Society is changing all the time; the Netherlands is increasingly becoming a networking and participation society, and a growing number of functions and authorities are being decentralized. More and more refugees are turning to the UAF, and we have therefore set ourselves an ambitious goal; to support as many refugees in our target group as possible to achieve economic self-sufficiency.