EP54 Covid Collateral Damage, Corporate Grooming and ADHD - Amanda Mataija

The Bla Bla Bunker

Living away from your home country can be amazing but also can come with challenges, such as language barriers, limited social life, understanding of the public system as well as being met with xenophobic attitudes. The Czech Republic has a very large number of foreigners living there but the society is not set to integrate these people so they feel welcome and valued.

Amanda is from Croatia and she is the founder of Prague Integration. Her idea at the start was to volunteer to support expats that are relocating to the city, helping them find their ways in the system as well as support their social life.

Then Covid came with its draconian measures of lock downs, isolating expats who were already on the fringes of society even more. When you keep humans scared, isolated, tell them not to go out, make them order fast food home and not breathe clean air then that is probably a recipe for disaster and Amanda saw that first hand, people needed help, substance abuse, domestic violence, anxiety, depression etc. all reached unseen levels. So her business went from being a small little volunteer thingy to over 20 consultants in a matter of months which enabled her to leave the corporate world behind and focus only on what she likes. Amanda has ADHD and explained to me how she has learned to live with that condition that has often caused her trouble but seems to also give her energy and strength to get her business off the ground... http://pragueintegration.cz/ https://www.facebook.com/pragueintegration https://www.instagram.com/pragueintegration/