A permanent contract with the fire department through Werkse

Afghan-Dutch Mohammad Mirzai waited 10 years for a residence permit. When he finally got it, it was time for work. He delivered pizzas for a while, but could not support his family on that. Via the municipality, he ended up at Werkse! Now, a year later, he has a permanent contract with Veiligheidsregio Haaglanden (VRH). “We are very happy with Mohammad,” said team chief Jaap van der Meer.

VRH and Werkse!, have had good contacts for some time. Among other things, Werkse! handles cleaning at VRH. “When a vacancy became available in the ‘personal protection’ team, we got two candidates through Werkse! They both rotated in for a month. Mohammad immediately took our liking, so we offered him a contract. He now works in the respiratory workshop,” Van der Meer says.

Testing respiratory masks
Mirzai is in place. “I clean the breathing air masks and test if they still work. I refill the breathing air cylinders, wash the dirty firefighters’ clothing and make sure everything is in the right place to be collected again.” For this, he took the level 2 respiratory protection course. He also obtained his theory truck driving licence at Werkse! and is now continuing with his practical driving licence. “I would like to learn a lot and driving a truck seems like a lot of fun,” he said. That, too, was one of the reasons for offering Mirzai a job. “It is very valuable that he will soon be able to drive a truck. I try to divide as many tasks as possible within the team, so that not everyone does the same thing every day. The truck is also part of that,” Van der Meer says.

Experience with clothes
His driving licence was not the only reason Mirzai got the job. “Mohammad is a hard worker. He goes straight to work without asking for anything. Not everyone does that. Besides, he has experience with clothes,” Van der Meer says. “My father is a dressmaker in Afghanistan. I learnt everything about clothes from him,” Mirzai says. Van der Meer notices this knowledge on a daily basis. “Mohammad has a feel for materials, knows exactly what can and cannot go in the washing machine and raises the alarm when something needs to be repaired. We outsource those repairs to another company”. “You don’t have to,” says Mirzai. “If there was a sewing machine here, I would make the clothes myself.”

Van der Meer did have reservations about Mirzai’s command of the Dutch language. “He understands a lot, but doesn’t speak the language very well yet. We solved that by giving him a buddy, who has experience teaching Dutch. “If I don’t understand something, I ask Tim,” Mirzai says. “We also drive from Delft to The Hague and back together every day. Even then we practise the language a lot.” Van der Meer finds it impressive what Mirzai has achieved in such a short time. “Despite not fully mastering the language yet, he got his level 2 diploma in one go. There are plenty of colleagues who do speak good Dutch who don’t manage to do that right away.”

Positive about cooperation
The team chief is positive about the cooperation with Werkse! “I can only recommend other agencies to engage with Werse!, or similar agencies. Make sure you build good contacts with them. They know their re-entrants and really look for the right person for the job, which saved us a lot of work right from the start.” Mirzai, too, is positive. “If you don’t have a job, go to Werkse! They give coaching and you get time to find out what you are good at and what suits you. I would say just try it. Last year I was delivering pizzas, now I’m helping people at the fire brigade.”