Education and cultural awareness, along with having fun and feeling good, are important for inclusiveness and integration into new societies. Asylove, in cooperation with Junior Chamber International (JCI) Zagreb and Are You Syrious?, is a project that enables all of this. Nina Mimica, product marketing and strategy consultant at Deutsche Telekom Europe and board member at JCI Croatia, gave her insights on Asylove. Nina has ten years of professional experience in the marketing sector across three European countries, and has been a member of JCI Zagreb for the past five years. So far, within JCI, she has held positions as local president, national vice president, national secretary general and national marketing director. Nina was one of the JCI members involved in organizing an Asylove initiative for refugee kids from the Porin Center for asylum seekers in Zagreb. The goal of the initiative was to create a fun day for kids and support integration into a new society. Little ones from the Porin Center spent the day laughing and playing in children’s birthday venue Balonko, with entertainment and an interactive program organized by JCI Zagreb. One of the highlights of the day was the kids blowing out candles on cakes together. The Asylove project is ongoing. There have been multiple Asylove events for refugee youth so far, including an educational LEGO workshop for learning about math, physics, and robotics using LEGOs, a dance workshop, and a visit to the zoo. The Asylove project was the winner of the Global Youth Empowerment Fund, which they will use to organize further activities aimed at helping the integration and socialization of refugee youth in Zagreb. The Asylove project was also presented at the United Nations headquarters in New York during the JCI Global Partnership Summit.
