A new print making class for Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women will run in association with Refugee Action by Leicester Printing Workshop’s resident artist Claire Morris-Wright. The workshops are completely FREE and will take place on the first Tuesday each month from 1pm – 3pm until September 2012.

The drop-in centre has now been open for a couple of months and attendee numbers are growing. The centre has hosted a number of activities including a very successful ‘Computing for Beginners’ course run by the Zinthiya Trust, regular sewing classes and LUSH ran a ‘pampering day’ for our ladies which was enormously popular and they plan to come in at regular intervals. We also have an immigration solicitor who will hold surgeries at the drop-in on alternate weeks. Keep an eye on our events page for all classes and activities that are run at the drop-in centre.

Our new drop-in centre was opened on Thursday 12th May 2011. It is in St Martins House, 7 Peacock Lane (the old school next to the Cathedral in the city centre). A team of volunteers spent several days before it opened, sorting and moving furniture from the store on Abbey Lane, where it had been since the closure of our premises in the old Barclay’s Bank, and cleaning the new venue. Pam Inder (Leicester City of Sanctuary’s Volunteer Coordinator) comments: “Everything in there was thick with dust and the floor was unbelievably filthy and stained with black bitumen. However, a pungent cocktail of paint stripper and chemicals worked wonders, especially when followed by Mick Walker and his patent technique of cleaning with a-brillo-pad-attached-to the-sole-of-the-shoe …”

Leeds Schools of Sanctuary initative was launched Feb 2011.

The following Leeds schools are currently working towards becoming official Schools of Sanctuary:

Primary Schools

Hovingham Primary School

Shire Oak Primary School

Shadwell Primary School

Bramley St Peter’s C of E Primary School

St Mary’s RC Primary, Horsforth

………………………………….

Secondary Schools

David Young Community Academy

City of Leeds

St Mary’s, Menston

Following meetings with refugees in the city about the rising levels of hate crime we set up a ‘Hate Crime Helpline’. Staffed by trained refugees and other migrants it opened on May 10th 2010

It is open:

Monday, Wednesday and Sunday (5pm -8pm)
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (10am–1pm)

The telephone number is 0808-800-0051 and is free from both land lines and mobiles. There is also a website www.hatecrimehelpline.org and it is on facebook

Ibrahim, one of the volunteers said, “I was so pleased that we were there to help the man I spoke with this morning. He had suffered a terrible ordeal and this was the third attack at his home. His wife has gone to stay with a friend and is frightened of coming back”.

As well as taking calls, the volunteers also go out into the community to talk about hate crime and what can be done. We are currently doing special events at the university and the colleges and the local ESOL classes.

A City of Sanctuary is one where neighbourhoods and work places are friendly and services are accessible and welcoming.

We have just completed a project in partnership with NHS Coventry to make GP surgeries more welcoming to refugees and other newcomers.

We are lucky to have a GP on our City of Sanctuary working group who is well respected by patients and doctors alike. To date, 24 GPs have personally signed the City of Sanctuary Pledge and we have an excellent health centre based in the Refugee Centre for those who do not yet have their refugee status.

However, some GPs are unfamiliar with refugee issues and don’t use interpreters when necessary, despite it being a free service. Similarly, some refugees do not yet understand the health care systems.

We asked doctors and refugees what difficulties they experienced and then ran workshops to share these findings with refugees and health professionals.

Below are three attachments. One is for doctors, one for receptionists and one for refugees. The refugee leaflet is also available in French, Arabic, Somali, Mandarin and Tigrinya on request. Please adapt and use these documents in other cities too.

Asylum-seekers based in Bristol who are left destitute by gaps in the asylum process will now be able to find alternative accommodation thanks two houses donated to Bristol Hospitality Network (BHN), and a network of local people offering a spare room.

Currently under the umbrella of Bristol Refugee Rights (BRR) - which runs a drop-in centre for asylum-seekers in Easton and presses for changes to the system that denies them their human rights - BHN is a working group looking into issues of housing for destitute asylum-seekers in Bristol.

"We support and recruit hosts for asylum seekers who attend BRR's services at the Welcome Centre in Easton, and have become ineligible for support," BHN said in a statement explaining the work of the group.

" Since being donated two houses, we are also in the process of setting these up to be able to house up to seven male destitute asylum seekers for short and long stays, and two wardens who will contribute to the running costs of the house."

BHN is appealing for help in any of the following ways:

1. If you are interested in offering temporary hospitality to a destitute asylum seeker in your own home, please contact the network for more information. We will arrange to meet you and discuss our ethos and the specifics of your situation before inviting you to host someone in your house.

2. In our projected budget for the two new houses, there is currently a £160/month deficit in funding. If you would be interested in making a small regular donation, like £5/month, please get in touch for more information.

3. We need several more trustees and a treasurer, preferably with experience in housing. If you are interest in a voluntary role of this sort, we would love to talk with you further.