MONDAY MATTERS: Swindon Refugee Week begins

Today begins the second annual Swindon Refugee Week – co-ordinated by Swindon City of Sanctuary, the Harbour Project, Amnesty International and Voluntary Action Swindon. As well as celebrating the contribution of refugees, the events are designed to help promote understanding of the reasons people might seek sanctuary.

The first event, tonight at 6.30pm in Swindon Arts Centre, is called Coming to Swindon: The Story of our Town – an evening of celebrations and inspiration exploring the unique history of Swindon, and how the town was founded on the movement of people from other places to create the community we have today.

“We’re celebrating the contribution of asylum seekers and refugees but it’s also about all of us, about wanting to come and join and be part of it and realising such wonderful things can come out of it,” said Kate Hudson, Refugee Week co-ordinator.

The theme of the week is ‘different pasts, shared future’ and it is primarily an arts and cultural event, with poetry, dance, music and song, culminating in the Global Garden Party at the Old Town Gardens on Sunday – an afternoon of live entertainment, family activities, dance and stalls, to which everyone is invited to get involved.

Malka Al-Haddad, from Iraq, is poet in residence. An academic and defender of human rights, as well as a poet, Malka has lived in Britain since 2012 and published her debut collection, Birds Without Sky. She will be performing poetry throughout the week.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Refugee Week UK, but it began locally three years ago, when Swindon Dance staged a one-day celebration.

“They created a wonderful evening of entertainment,” Kate recalled.

She and Hannah Parry, of Voluntary Action Swindon, subsequently went to the Refugee Council conference in London at the headquarters of Amnesty International and were inspired to organise a whole week of events for 2017.

“We got really fired up,” Kate said.

“It was fantastically inspiring and really exciting. We thought, shall we go back to Swindon City of Sanctuary and suggest we take it up?

“We managed to get it together quite quickly – we only had three or four months.”

Kate, who is also a trustee of Swindon City of Sanctuary, and a former drama teacher, said: “Last year Hannah and I organised and produced most of the events – it was a bit mad! We had music, art, a radio programme. This year, we decided to call on like-minded and enthusiastic people to put on events. They are all being run by volunteers.”

Christina Bennett is co-ordinating work with local schools for Refugee Week. Ten of the town’s schools have now been accredited as Schools of Sanctuary. On Tuesday the Central Community Centre will be the venue for Breathing Fire: Black Women’s Playback Theatre Company, from Bristol, a group of talented performers sharing individual and collective stories.

To mark World Refugee Day on Wednesday, a radio programme on Swindon 105.5 at 9am will include contributions from local refugees and their experiences of settling in Swindon.

One such asylum seeker, who now has leave to remain, is Roksana, who has agreed to contribute to the World Refugee radio programme on Tuesday.

Roksana had to flee from her native Iran for political reasons and has been living in Swindon for about a year.

“I like Swindon – the people are very friendly,” she said. “The Harbour Project has been like a home.”

Roksana was sent to Cardiff first, and when her application for asylum was at first refused, faced certain homelessness until kind British friends she had met through church offered to support her, which they did for a year.

“They are lovely people and I think I am very lucky,” she said.

Her application was finally successful at appeal.

She said: “I am happy I am here. Now it’s important for me to get a job.”

At 11am the same day is a workshop called Craftivism, at Artsite Number Nine Gallery, Theatre Square.

On Thursday evening from 6.30pm, meet new people and enjoy an open mic music session at Darkroom Espresso. Schools, along with Prime Theatre, Swerve Dance Theatre Company and Create studios are coming together to present a one-off show at Swindon Dance, with film, drama and dance inspired by refugees’ stories on Friday at 6.45pm.

Swindon Amnesty International is celebrating its 40th birthday party with an open lunch for all at the Friends Meeting House on Saturday at 1pm. An evening of live acoustic music and poetry at Savernake Street community hall begins at 7.30pm on Saturday, hosted by Mr Love and Justice.

“The whole thing is meant to be a celebration of what people from other countries bring to our country,” Kate said.

Swindon is a designated dispersal town, meaning that in the region of 250 asylum seekers a year are sent here to live, while their asylum applications are under consideration.

The Harbour Project at St Luke’s Hall in Broad Street provides friendship, advice and hope to refugees and asylum seekers in the town. It was founded during the crisis in Kosovo in 2000, became a registered charity in 2003 and now welcomes people from a variety of other countries ravaged by fighting and abuses of human rights, including Syria, Eritrea and Somalia.

Its services include a weekday drop-in centre offering information, advice, support and social contact, as well as classes and courses in art, cookery, computers and the English language.

Swindon City of Sanctuary is part of a nationwide movement committed to building a culture of hospitality. The steering committee came together in May 2016 after a meeting of groups who wanted to help make refugees and asylum seekers feel more welcomed and supported. In March this year, it registered as a charity.

Swindon COS also set up a Room For All hosting scheme last year, which matches homeless refugees referred by The Harbour Project to volunteers with a spare room willing to provide accommodation, until the refugees get back on their feet.

For more information about Swindon Refugee Week and Swindon City of Sanctuary, visit Facebook.com/SwindonCOS or email info@swindon.cityofsanctuary.org.