TODcast - The Oslo Desk Podcast

A conversation with Dora Poni Loro based in Bergen on cross-cultural parenting, child welfare system, BLM, immigration journey, racism, school, bridging cultures, intercultural competence, ambitions, social distancing and collective responsibilities.

Dora Poni Loro is a social worker with a master’s degree in child welfare, and additional studies in Trauma-Informed Care and disclosure of sexual abuse in children and young people. She currently works in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services for unaccompanied refugee minors in Bergen Municipality.

In 2013, Dora was awarded the Top 10 immigrants Award by Leadership Foundation and in 2010 she was awarded the " Woman in Focus " Award by Positive Education, for her dedication and work with immigrant women in Bergen.

Dora is a mother of two and a passionate social activist who engages herself in issues concerning youth and women empowerment, cross-cultural parenting, migration challenges, and active participation and representation of minorities in Norwegian society. Dora stands firm in love, dignity, empowerment and full potential for herself and others. She is an enabler, and she lives to pave the way and create space for others, to empower and to use her voice to speak for those who cannot.

A conversation with Dora Poni Loro based in Bergen on cross-cultural parenting, child welfare system, BLM, immigration journey, racism, school, bridging cultures, intercultural competence, ambitions, social distancing and collective responsibilities.

Dora Poni Loro is a social worker with a master’s degree in child welfare, and additional studies in Trauma-Informed Care and disclosure of sexual abuse in children and young people. She currently works in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services for unaccompanied refugee minors in Bergen Municipality.

In 2013, Dora was awarded the Top 10 immigrants Award by Leadership Foundation and in 2010 she was awarded the " Woman in Focus " Award by Positive Education, for her dedication and work with immigrant women in Bergen.

Dora is a mother of two and a passionate social activist who engages herself in issues concerning youth and women empowerment, cross-cultural parenting, migration challenges, and active participation and representation of minorities in Norwegian society. Dora stands firm in love, dignity, empowerment and full potential for herself and others. She is an enabler, and she lives to pave way and create space for others, to empower and to use her voice to speak for those who cannot.

A conversation with John Alan Resse on parenting, police force in US and Norway, child welfare system, BLM, podcast, racism, immigration journey, talent recognition, and rising above all odds.

John founded and hosted The Comin' Home Podcast, which is now turned into a FM radio show. John is also an independent artist, musician, songwriter, standup comedian and powerlifter. He was a former US police officer who worked as a narcotics and gang detective, crime scene technician and juvenile officer for 7 years in the U.S.A. In Norway, he has worked as a caseworker for child welfare services, and founded 3 gyms. His podcast was inspired by his own search for motivation and meaning after losing his son to heroin overdose in November 2019.

A teaser for the conversation with André Percy Katombe on parenting, coronavirus pandemic, work, Hip Hop, symbolism, ancestral heritage, spirituality,  racism, social impact, power of words and hope.

André Percy Moussa Didi Mbangama Katombe is a Congolese who was  raised in South Africa. He lived 8 years in Seychelles, before relocating to Norway with his wife and kids. A former Hip Hop artist turned videographer and photographer, he runs Sonrise Picture production company in Oslo.

Sonrise Picture: https://www.sonrisepicture.com/

Season 5 - Black Parents in Norway - Their Story.

Podcast cover & production by Ka Man Mak

A conversation with André Percy Katombe on parenting, coronavirus pandemic, work, Hip Hop, symbolism, ancestral heritage, spirituality, racism, social impact, power of words and hope. 

André Percy Moussa Didi Mbangama Katombe is a Congolese who was raised in South Africa. He lived 8 years in Seychelles, before relocating to Norway with his wife and kids. A former Hip Hop artist turned videographer and photographer, he runs Sonrise Picture production company in Oslo. 

Sonrise Picture: https://www.sonrisepicture.com/

Season 5 - Black Parents in Norway - Their Story.

Podcast cover & production by Ka Man Mak

A teaser for the conversation with Chisom Udeze on entrepreneurship journey, motherhood, identity, LGBT+ community, allyship and BLM movement.

Chisom is the Founder of Diversify, HerSpace and Mettle Consult. She is an Economist and entrepreneur who holds multiple undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. She is Nigerian and has lived and worked in six countries across three continents. In addition to actively building and driving growth at her companies, Chisom works as a consultant for intergovernmental organizations and SMEs across industry sectors. She is highly skilled in areas such as strategy, research, project design and execution, data analysis, and monetization.

She is a fearless advocate for diversity, opportunity, and inclusion across social, economic, political, and professional lines. She believes in accountability and actionable processes, and that our words have no value if our actions contradict them. Recently, she became one of the jury members for the Business Diversity Awards in Norway. Season 5 - Black Parents in Norway - Their Story.

Podcast cover & production by Ka Man Mak

A conversation with Chisom Udeze on entrepreneurship journey, motherhood, identity, LGBT+ community, allyship and BLM movement. 

Chisom is the Founder of Diversify, HerSpace and Mettle Consult. She is an Economist and entrepreneur who holds multiple undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. She is Nigerian and has lived and worked in six countries across three continents. In addition to actively building and driving growth at her companies, Chisom works as a consultant for intergovernmental organizations and SMEs across industry sectors. She is highly skilled in areas such as strategy, research, project design and execution, data analysis, and monetization.

She is a fearless advocate for diversity, opportunity, and inclusion across social, economic, political, and professional lines. She believes in accountability and actionable processes, and that our words have no value if our actions contradict them. Recently, she became one of the jury members for the Business Diversity Awards in Norway.

Helene Timm is a graduate of the ReMa Cultural Leadership (University of Groningen, Netherlands) and started this podcast season "Leading together" with The Oslo Desk to find out what leadership theory and practice has to offer beyond the realm of Arts and Culture. In this episode she reflects on the lessons she learned from her interview partners and their disciplines. Besides these content-related learnings she reveals also what she learned as an interviewer about building bridges between interviewee and audience as well as her journalistic approach for this season.

Vindskift? That is the founders Susanne Wexels and Ida Patel Hellum along with a whole (sailing) community. Vindskift brings people with boats and sailors together with groups who have not had access to sailing before. Around their big kitchen table we are discussing in this episode how out of a personal passion and the community's demand and supply an NGO grew. They reflect on  their friendship that started in childhood and how to maintain it throughout the highlights and the mundane of a growing project. Furthermore Ida and Susanne share the parallels they have discovered between leadership and sailing and how they organize an NGO that greatly relies on volunteers and their engagement.

Christy Lorgen is the leader of the Corporate Intelligence Unit of KPMG in Norway and has over 20 years of experience in her field. 

The red thread of this conversation with Christy has been trust. To trust in one's highly capable and highly international team. But also to trust one's own abilities. Christy gives insights on the work as a director for one of the big four (international accounting and professional services firms), but also what it is like to be a female leader, mother and a woman from the US in Norway. 

Frederick Fladmark is a consultant who adapts military strategies to the business world. Therefore, it does not suprise that he easily switches between leadership examples of the armed forces, fast food giants and a theatre group. In this episode he shares what military strategies have to offer to the current leadership discourse and how it might go beyond simply creating discipline and blindly following orders. Instead, we discuss how to be aware of the situation your organisation is in, recognize the form of leadership needed for the task and communicate intent.

Melanie Coffee is a storyteller, Certified ScrumMaster and deeply cares about diversity and making people's voices heard. 

In this episode Melanie describes the current pull towards a compassionate sense of leadership and how it can be achieved through psychological safety. In this interview we are drawing connections between Scrum and diversity and how to even run your household on these principles.

Dr. Anthony Giannoumis is an action researcher, social entrepreneur and equality advocate. 

Who would have thought that food can be used as a vehicle to learn languages and the cultures? Intercultural dialogues don’t have to start by knowing the language, although that can help, but more importantly learning about the culture and fighting for your rights is also important. Tune into Helga Hinse’s episode to learn about how food can become a vehicle to German culture, how their women and family centre at Ettlinger, Germany tackle the far-right movement and how she opened up doors for the next generations. Helga Hinse is a former secondary school teacher and former Head of Ettlinger Women and Family Centre. She now works at Mütterforum. 

Text and Podcast production by Ka Man Mak.
Podcast Anchor: Ka Man Mak.

//

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:

The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

While its primary mandate of the Oslo Primary School for Adults is to provide education, Lene Løge Almqvist, who heads the school wonders how curriculum can be tweaked to respond to other needs of the student such as offering alternative pathways for learning for some students or prepare more integrated learning activities that can be helpful for students who may be interested in using their education to find a job rather than pursue higher learning.

In this regard, Almqvist revealed that the school office in Oslo is presently discussing possibilities to create several pathways in adult education by creating specialized programs within the primary school for adults to make learning outcomes more relevant for each participant. One of the programs will specialize in preparing students for further education, another program directed towards work skills education, and the third that will be directed towards being an active citizen participating in their local community all within fulfilling the primary school obligations as a state-funded educational institution.

At the moment, Almqvist thinks that the curriculum that the primary school for adults is not flexible enough to respond to the needs of adult learners and sees the need to “widen the focus of the curriculum” to include the knowledge and skills and competencies that the students “need to be active citizens and gain control over their own lives to obtain the competencies.”

She stressed that the adult education school is facing a lot of structural and organizational challenges that hinder flexibility that a voice needs to be raised to point out how some participants are actually falling between different chairs, and figure out how to help them by adjusting the system to ensure that fewer people fall through the cracks.

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:

The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

Podcast cover by Ka Man Mak and Kriti Thepade.  
Text by Macel Ingles
Podcast production by Ka Man Mak and Alex Whateley.  
Articles by Maria Cecelia Ingles

The Introduction Program in Norway is focused on getting the participants qualified for work by usually designating them three days a week to Norwegian classes and two days a week to obtain work experience. But, only if their Norwegian language skills are good enough, will they get a Praksisplass - the Norwegian term for gaining training and work experience, which is for two days a week on a 3-month contract.

This process is beneficial since the refugees and immigrants need work experience. Some do get a job after practising while others need to take more time to gain work eligibility.

“Integration is a shared sense of responsibility,” said Donika Nura the Project Leader of the Introduction Program at District Stovner. The main purpose of this program is to integrate immigrants into work, so that they can become financially independent, especially for refugees who are granted a residence permit. Donika elaborates further on integration, “it’s not enough to just have an introduction program unless society takes a common responsibility for assimilation.”

One of the major challenges that Donika faced is finding employers, who are willing to give a chance to immigrants with work experience in another country or ones who have none. It is her job to make sure that the employers do not take advantage of free labour. “I stay in touch with the employer and ask for a plan on what they are meant to go through. When I hear justifications like the participant is good, but they need more time; and they don’t have a proper reason on why the time is needed; then I will tell the employer that they either hire the person or the candidate is told not to go there anymore.”

Even though the current climate of the far-right movement and the anti-immigration sentiment looms Europe, Donika sees the reduction of refugees in the District Stovner. However, there may be a silver lining to this which is work can be effective for smaller classes so that there is more contact time for the participants to help them get a job.

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:

The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

Text and Podcast cover by Ka Man Mak and Kriti Thepade.
Podcast production by Ka Man Mak and Alex Whateley.
Articles by Maria Cecelia Ingles

“We don’t work for the government, that’s really important because the trust between us and the women we support is the most important.”

These are the words of Ismahan Ahmed Adan (30), a part-time student of Bachelors in Social Work, a multicultural doula at Oslo university hospital, and volunteer at Bydelsmødre, that translates as ‘’District Mothers’’.

Commenced in 2016, Bydelsmødre now has 131 branches in Oslo, in 6 different districts. It focuses on supporting women especially the ones isolated and mothers who are not receiving help in their communities and are unable to contact public institutions. They're given a wide range of support such as translating letters from their children’s school, or initiating the application process for kindergarten, or access to resources such as where to learn Norwegian language or basic rights. ‘Bydelsmødre acts like a cultural bridge by eliminating language barriers and building trust in their communities,’ said Ismahan who was raised in Oslo with roots in Somalia and is fully aware of how crucial this bridge is to empower the women, who trust them to understand their problems better than anyone else. “The initiative that hasn't been in Norway for such a long time, but the impact and the success stories have been so many,” cited Ismahan, who is hopeful to see that every district or neighbourhood in Oslo will have a district mother.

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

Text and Podcast cover by Ka Man Mak and Kriti Thepade.
Podcast production by Ka Man Mak and Alex Whateley. 
Articles by Maria Cecelia Ingles

NAV Jobbsjansen (Job Opportunity Scheme) - a qualification program for women who want to work or begin education. The program is for two to three years but has been running since 2013. She emphasised that Jobbsjansen provides women who have been at home for a long time with an opportunity to be educated and helps them sneak in the backdoor to get a job or work experience.

“Norway really needs diversity and people from different backgrounds because that really enriches our own culture and country in various ways. So, I am very glad to have this job where I meet so many wonderful women and am very grateful to be a part of their lives,” said Elisabeth Larsen, Project Leader of NAV Jobbsjansen (Job Opportunity Scheme).

Elisabeth further continued about how it’s been a learning process about participants of different cultures. Elisabeth is from Finmark but has been living in Oslo for 20 years. Due to her love for learning languages and cultures, not only has she mastered Russian, German, and Farsi but also feels like an immigrant. She can perceive the hard work these women put in. And since more and more jobs are disappearing from the labor market, there is a great need to focus on education or re-skilling.

She talked about how Jobbsjansen motivates adults to learn languages by including specific topics that concern the women who are participating. Every Friday, 10 am to 2pm, they have a gathering where participants are put into groups and everyone gets a chance to voice their opinions and speak about politics, women’s rights, dependency etc. and see that there are different women with distinct personalities growing together.

Elisabeth Larsen, Project Leader of NAV Jobbsjansen (Job Opportunity Scheme). Email: Elisabeth.Larsen2@nav.no.

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:
The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

Text and Podcast cover by Ka Man Mak and Kriti Thepade.
Podcast production by Ka Man Mak and Alex Whateley. 
Articles by Maria Cecelia Ingles

Ann-Britt Svensson is a teacher and Marianne Lööf is a social worker. Both work at the Women's Center (Kvinno Center) in Bergsjön. The Swedish non-profit organisation was founded in 1998 to help women with immigrant backgrounds participate in society. They talk about the challenges of finding funding, the meaningful work they do, political integration, and how they help in bridging cultures.

Ann-Britt describes that “integration is mostly about participating in society and making your voice heard.”

Women’s Centre in Bergsjön runs as a local center of excellence for equality and diversity. They are an open meeting place for women of all ages and nationalities with an ambition to pass on knowledge to members; collaborate with other similar organizations and businesses. Due to their efforts in bridging the gap, 80 women were able to come out to work, and were employed in jobs such as cultural translators. Now, the Women's Center wants to be able to promote exchanges internationally.

Marianne also explains how they deal with racist people by inviting them to the Women's Center and help fight for the rights of women in every way they can.

“I think it is very important, they learn and work together, and support each other at the women's center. It is a nice place to be for them and for us. We learn together,” says Marianne. Ann-Britt thoughtfully adds about human rights being so important to participate and integrate as a part of society. Learning a language is a human right just as the right to work.

About European Initiatives For An Inclusive Society:
The Oslo Desk was invited to contribute to a third study visit of the Family+ project in Oslo under a three-day conference between 11th and 13th March. The project aims to overcome the social exclusion of families through family education and empowerment activities, adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged and migrant families. Therefore the conference is part of exchanging knowledge and practices between Germany, Sweden and Norway. However, the conference was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak and lockdown measures. In collaboration with Oslo VO Rosenhof, an adult learning centre, and funded by Erasmus plus programme of the European Union, are we able to produce a podcast season and series of articles.

Text and Podcast cover by Ka Man Mak and Kriti Thepade.
Podcast production by Ka Man Mak and Alex Whateley. 
Articles by Maria Cecelia Ingles

Preeti Agarwal, a physiotherapist turned entrepreneur, founded startup Positival to digitalise physiotherapy care to target musculoskeletal conditions with the aim to increase health literacy among people. Preeti was born in Norway by Indian parents who came to Norway in 1974, which tracks back to her grandfather who was a general secretary stationed in Oslo. Despite her bike accident that led her on a tough path, it taught her a life lesson. Preeti, a lateral thinker with her culturally diverse perspective served her well in her work. In the podcast episode, we talked also about how she dealt with prejudice, coped with disability and the incredible journey to get to where she is today.

Her Fight, Her Startup, Her take on Diversity.

Malaysian Yenyin Kwan is currently working as a Marketing Coordinator at Huawei in Oslo, and is an entrepreneur focused on bridging cultures. She studied Chinese Studies at University of Oslo and wrote her master thesis on the long journey of Chinese immigrants in Oslo. In the podcast episode, Yenyin talked about her hardship of finding work opportunities after her graduation and highlighted some solutions to the cultural differences she noticed in Norway. Her volunteering work at Oslo Films from the South Festival, Nordic Startup Awards, Global Talent Career Fair, the Norwegian Festival of Literature and Norwegian Investment Forum helped her build a network that eventually led her to find a job. This made her believe in the power of networking by volunteering.

Karie Yu is an architect and illustrator. She is the author of the Chinese book 冬秋冬冬 : 香港人的北歐生活手帳( “Winter-autumn-winter-winter- A handbook of life in Scandinavia”), and Rice and Viking blog. Karie is an architect who has her education and work experience from Hong Kong, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. She is currently working in Nordic Office of Architecture in Oslo. Her works include Carpe Diem Dementia Village (the first dementia village in Norway), Aleris clinic extension in Frogner and Comfort Hotel in Bergen airport. Her Chinese illustration book 冬秋冬冬 : 香港人的北歐生活手帳( “Winter-autumn-winter-winter- A handbook of life in Scandinavia”) describes her observations and experiences between the Scandinavia and Hong Kong culture shown in graphic and simple text. She also blogs about her life in Scandinavia to Chinese readers, with a focus on cultural barriers.

Michell Mpike is the founder of Inklusive Books, a publishing house focused on introducing diverse stories, characters and authors to the European literature scene, with a special focus on literature for children and young people. Michell is South African with expertise in education and social policy research. In this podcast episode, we discuss the importance of diversity, inclusion, and representation in children's literature and media, and her journey as an entrepreneur in Norway.

We dive into the cultural differences between South Africa and Norway, children as the future custodian of the society we live in, representation in children's literature and media, how Michell started Inklusive Books, Norwegian children's literature industry, symbolic annihilation and cultural identity.

Tina Marie Tsiplakis on her ADHD and Publishing House Startup – S1E6

An honest and open, as well as serious and funny discussion with Tina Marie Tsiplakis on the hardship of founding a startup, seeking jobs, communicating through different cultures, living with ADHD and depression, and terrorism. Tina is the founder of Mangfold Forlag, a publishing house that creates children books to tackle difficult topics. Her first book, Jeg gikk meg over sjø og land (I walked across sea and land) explains who are refugees through the journey of a boy. She is also a Greek to Norwegian interpreter, and has worked at JobbX to help people improve their CVs.

20-year-old Hifza Shahzad is a second-year student in computer science at Oslo Metropolitan University. She moved from Pakistan to Norway with her family at the age of 5.  In 2019, Hifza attended UN WSIS hackathon - #Hack4Education, and her team came up with SiDo (Sew It), a mobile application to empower women in Pakistan through sewing and employment, and won top prize to participate the Summer School in Geneva. She is involved in other projects such as an app that translates sign language to text and audio, and Astelle, a project where children are able to express themselves through art.

Cathrine Bui is a master’s student in Programming and Networks at University of Oslo with a great passion in blockchain and gender issues. She was born and raised in Norway, with parents who were once boat refugees from Vietnam.

In 2018, Cathrine had lived in South Korea for 10 months on a student exchange program, and had an internship there in blockchain which changed her life. She won a blockchain hackathon, got the chance to interview Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and also had dinner with David Paterson, an African American and New York governor who is blind. Same year, Cathrine founded a startup called Mind The Gapto fight the gender pay gap by teaching young professionals how to negotiate their salaries. In 2019, she founded Blockwave Norway, a student organization at University of Oslo with the aim to teach people about blockchain. Cathrine is now stepping back from her projects and talked about the importance of self-care. She also opened up about two major obstacles she faced and dived deeper on gender issues. 

Cathrine said, "As a woman, you can’t wait for men to fix your problem. You are the one that needs to step up!”.

Suriati Supani is a Singaporean and founder of Scandiplanet, a travel agency with a core focus on northern lights. Before moving to Norway, she worked in policy making in Singapore, specifically in employment strategy. After struggling with finding work in Norway and having sent 300 job applications, she transformed her mindset with the help of mentors and workshops, where Tony Robbins was mentioned. All of this led her to establish Scandiplanet. Suriati pointed out that just because you can’t find a job, the talent and skills still live in you. In her own words, “We have so much that we can offer. We have so much talent in us. […] Yet we just limit ourselves by finding a job.”

She is now also teaching public speaking and talked about her role in a Norwegian play about a chicken farm that had imported foreign golden eggs. The play was to show how often, " The outsider always sees what the insider don't see or chooses to overlook".