Category Archives: In the Community

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 […]

Do you run a caring local business? Could you help us out by placing one of our collecting tins in your reception area or next to the till? We will make every penny donated count! There are plenty of other ways in which your business could help us to improve the lives of others in […]

2.6 million people currently live in refugee camps around the world. These displaced people are stuck – unable to find somewhere safe to settle and earn a livelihood, but simply unable to go home. In the camps, refugees are surviving on meagre food supplies, sub-standard healthcare and in appalling conditions. Which is why one of […]

Community, sanctuary and delicious results Ghaliya and her husband Zak run a catering business called White Gardenia. They cook home-made, traditional Syrian cuisine that’s utterly delicious. Food from Syria is very Mediterranean with fresh salads, grilled meat, hummus, falafel and other mezze-style dishes. The couple are building a new life in Brightlingsea, where they were […]

You’ve got 20 minutes to pack a bag and flee your home. What do you take? This is a question we ask primary school children on our workshops as part of the Tendring Junior Ambassadors programme – and to be honest, your iPad won’t keep you warm at night! We’ve spoken to more than 600 children […]

‘Bless the teachers!‘ Faith would love to work with children, but reckons being a teacher looks so difficult these days! She can’t work at all, however, because the Home Office has been processing her Leave to Remain application for almost two years, and she hasn’t even had an acknowledgement from them. She’s lived in Colchester […]

Heja, her husband Jutyar, baby Lauand and Liz haven’t known each other long, but they are family. Maybe not a traditional family, but there’s a lot of love here. Liz came along to one of our community events at Firstsite a few months ago and met Heja, a young mum from Iraq. Since then, the […]

We asked Cal, a client from Zimbabwe, to document his situation for us so that we could share it with you as an example of the issues faced by our clients. Here are Cal’s thoughts… Hello, My name is Cal. I am a refugee from Zimbabwe. I have lived in the UK since 2007. I […]

We went to the celebration event for this remarkable project. This year two of the RA-C team and Zak, a 16 year-old from Syria have spent an entire morning or afternoon at 12 schools across the Tendring area. We have some fun activities, including writing in Arabic, and some reflective ones where students list what […]