What a (success) story!

From Gambia to Germany

Samba comes from Gambia.  Surrounded by Senegal, Gambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a huge diversity of flora and fauna.  The climate is tropical and is partly influenced by the Sahara Desert to the north.  Due to political upheavals Samba, who had worked as a fireman in Gambia, was politically persecuted and threatened with arrest.  In order to escape this, his only option in 2013 was to flee his home country. 

Mostly by bus and on foot he first travelled north, from Gambia to Senegal, from Senegal to Mali, from there to Burkina Faso and on to Niger, until he finally arrived in Libya.  During the journey he repeatedly had to make stops for several weeks to earn new money for the next stage of the journey.

In 2014 he finally arrived in Italy, where he stayed for two years.  Due to difficult and stressful living conditions, in 2016 he decided to continue his journey to Germany. 

The path to cyber-Wear  

After arriving in Germany Samba lived in a refugee hostel in Sinsheim for six months.  In the first weeks and months he kept his head above water by doing a few temporary jobs.  However, the companies involved could not or did not wish to employ him on a long-term basis, so he soon found himself without a job again.  Then, a few weeks later, the employment department contacted Samba and told him that they had a job for him.  At first, however, it was only in the form of an internship.  And that was the beginning of his work with us.  After the trial month Samba was immediately employed on a permanent basis, and we are happy that ever since then he has been part of our team and has helped to support our company.  

More than just an employer

Probably the biggest difficulty for refugees and immigrants newly arriving in Germany is the language and, perhaps even more so, the bureaucratic hurdles and communication with the authorities or other institutions such as insurance companies. 

Even during his time in the asylum centre Samba tried to learn German and make himself at home in Germany.  The worst thing for him was sitting around in the asylum centre without having anything to do or even being allowed to do anything.  For this reason Samba attended an integration café from the very beginning to learn German there.  In terms of integration, one lesson that can be learned from Samba's story is that the kind of employer you are placed with has a big influence on how successful the integration will be.  Samba is enormously eager to learn, open-minded and positive, but throughout his time doing temporary jobs he had little opportunity to learn anything new.  This was due to the fact that he was working with many other refugees and immigrants, without anyone paying any special attention to them.

 
It was different at cyber-Wear.  Samba has been an integral part of the whole team since day one.  The whole team took care of him and helped him,  both in his job as well as in his private life.  Learning German at the packing table or during the lunch break was quite normal.  But we also supported Samba outside the company.  Helping him with local bureaucracy, renewing his passport and many other things were and are a matter of course for us. 

Today, we can all proudly say, Samba has arrived.  His long and difficult journey has been worthwhile.  Samba now lives with his wife, her mother and daughter in Mutterstadt.  Of course he misses his home country Gambia from time to time, as he is of course still more familiar with the culture and life there than with that of Germany.  However, since he has been working at cyber-Wear he feels at home in Germany and has also found some peace of mind again without constantly thinking of Gambia. 

We are happy to have you, Samba, as a committed colleague and great guy, and look forward to the coming years with you!