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The people we meet have a wide range of issues – often made all the worse by a history of unthinkably harrowing experiences endured in their own countries or while travelling to the UK. Getting to know desperate and often completely destitute people, gaining their trust, hearing their stories and ultimately helping them to get […]
06
Oct
Oct
Get ready for some delicious dishes at our next Pop-Up Cafe at Firstsite from 12.00-3.00pm on Saturday 19th October… Cooked by refugee chefs from Syria and Sudan – this is going to be a real treat for the taste-buds!
06
Oct
Oct
During the Summer many of the friends in our community organised their own trips to the seaside, local parks and in some cases to visit family in other countries. As the original Syrian families who came to Colchester under the Vulnerable Persons Scheme become more familiar with this country, and our town, we are getting […]
06
Oct
Oct
Since Jan has been supporting play at our monthly meetings at Firstsite there has been an increase in the amount of children asking their parents to come to these meetings… Children often arrive asking ‘where is Jan?’ – she welcomes them in a way that shows where training and expertise meet real life and offers […]
05
Oct
Oct
We were thrilled and very grateful recently to accept a £600 donation from Poetry Wivenhoe, Colchester Mosaic Stanza and Suffolk Poetry Society who donated the proceeds from their anthology ‘Towards the Light, poems of reconciliation.’ The book features many truly evocative poems, as demonstrated in the following extract from ‘ Existentialism on the Dengie Peninsula’ […]
25
Aug
Aug
What do all children need in order to grow into healthy, happy members of society? Security. Stability. Love, care, the latest iPhone (even refugees just want to be cool!). But jokes aside, it’s vital for a child’s mental wellbeing to know where they belong. For three young people in our community, a group of siblings […]
24
Aug
Aug
For many of our clients, paperwork is a life raft. It’s the difference between a safe home and healthy existence, and the ongoing struggle to survive. But it can be impossible. A lack of English speaking and writing skills is an enormous barrier to filling in asylum applications, NHS forms, welfare statements, school applications, job […]
23
Aug
Aug
Around 40% of the people we help are NRPFs. This is a UK status that means ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ – basically, no benefits, no housing. But with no legal right to work – being forced instead to rely on the generosity of strangers, or live on the street. Often this is a temporary […]
22
Aug
Aug
This week we celebrate two years as a fully-fledged CIC – a Community Interest Company. Why do we not have charity status? As a non-profit CIC, we can be more flexible with our income generation drives (which we need to pay rent, office supplies and services in order to do the work we do). It […]
17
Aug
Aug
Mid-August and children start to long to return to school and parents wonder how they can keep them entertained… Then Greenleaf Forest School offer a free day of fun at Highwoods Country Park and the world becomes a lot brighter. 22 children and their parents and friends came along and we enjoyed the shade of […]