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News & stories |
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We have just heard that 'Amirah', student and member of our Advisory Board, has been granted refugee status after a wait of nearly three years.
We hope this will provide a bit of security and hope for Amirah and her family. You can read Amirah's story here: www.hertswelcomes.org.uk/refugee-voices/refugee-voices-amirah We were dismayed at Jim Ratcliffe talking about our country being colonised by immigrants! Hear our response here on Heart Radio: If you are on our mailing list you should have received our latest newsletter from our brilliant editor Anna, at http://eepurl.com/jy8LBQ
Read this to find out about our new Director Katie, our AGM, an update to Forced to Flee, our response to the government's earned settlement consultation, a new Refugee Voices project and a delicious recipe!  We are so pleased to introduce our new Director, Katie Allen-East who starts her new role with us on 16th February. Katie chatted to our volunteer Helen:
We are delighted to welcome you Katie. Thank you! I am really excited. I see you that you have a lot of experience in the charity and development sector. Can you tell us a little bit about this, and your experience and interests? I decided at quite an early age that I wanted to work for people affected by violence and conflict, so I studied “Post-War Recovery Studies”, which included my first experience directly with refugees as we did field research with Iraqi refugees in Jordan. Since then (almost 20 years ago) I’ve worked for a wide range of INGOs across programme management, fundraising and operations roles - most recently as the Director of Global Grants Management for Women for Women International and Head of Development at EduSpots. I’ve travelled to many conflict affected countries and listened to displaced people in places such as Iraq, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Romania. Alongside this, I’ve been a passionate volunteer since I was a teenager, always having some kind of volunteer role - although these have been very varied - alongside my day jobs. When I lived in south-east London I volunteered for and then became a trustee of Action for Refugees in Lewisham, where I learnt a lot about the UK refugee support sector. A couple of years later, I helped to set-up a baby bank called MammaKind - where I now remain a Trustee and we’ve reached over 7000 family members experiencing poverty (including many with insecure immigration status) since 2020. What led you to apply for the Director position with Herts Welcomes Refugees? Is there a particular motivating factor? There are a few motivations that made me very excited when I saw the role advertised in the newsletter. As mentioned already, I’ve worked with people affected by conflict for most of my career and this passion really came from my own family history. My grandparents were refugees to the UK, and growing up hearing about the persecution they and their families’ faced, their incredible journey to seek safety, and how they rebuilt their lives in the UK meant I always had a really strong empathy for people facing similar struggles today and also an appreciation of how incredibly lucky I was to have a safe and secure home. I think it was this feeling that led me to wanting to work in the charity sector and, with people facing conflict and displacement in particular. As well as this, whilst I’ve loved working internationally for most of my career, I was excited about the idea of switching to work more with my local community. I moved to Hertfordshire 5 years ago, have two children now and feel very settled here but working with colleagues overseas all the time meant I was a little disconnected from where I’m actually based. I’m really looking forward to meeting people across the county and getting to be part of the incredible HWR community. What will your role as Director involve? Since it’s a brand new role I’m sure it will evolve over time depending on needs. But, in essence it will involve working with the trustees and volunteers to ensure we’re providing the best possible services to refugees and asylum seekers. This may include finding ways to make our systems more efficient, to improve the quality of service provision, to ensure compliance with all appropriate laws and regulations, to offer more consistent services, or meet new needs. I will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the charity, as well as contributing to strategy and sustainability. How do you think Herts Welcomes Refugees can best support asylum seekers, refugees and its volunteers? This is a little hard to say until I really get stuck into the role and can understand what’s needed in more depth. The key thing for me at the start will be listening to our volunteers and asylum seeker and refugee partners to understand their key challenges and where HWR can realistically support or improve. I know there are many barriers facing refugees and asylum seekers, including decision making timelines, finding housing, employment, and so on. We can’t solve all of these problems but I’m sure what the volunteers do makes a difference and hope we can continue to provide a range of moral and practical support. This is a challenging time for refugees and asylum seekers. How do you think Herts Welcomes Refugees can make a difference? It is definitely a difficult time, but I understand that after some of the protests last summer HWR actually saw an increase in people getting in touch wanting to volunteer. This gives me huge hope and shows how the narratives we hear in the news are not how everyone feels by a long way. I think HWR can make a difference by continuing to provide a warm welcome to those arriving in Hertfordshire and reminding them that there are many people who do care and support them; by continuing to tell the real stories of asylum seekers and refugees, busting some of the myths and fake news that go around; and by bringing people together and providing a channel for those who want to take positive action. What would you say to anyone thinking of becoming involved with Herts Welcomes Refugees? Do it! Volunteering is so rewarding in so many ways - you meet great people, learn new skills, and feel great for using your time in such a valuable way. It can help you professionally if you’re looking for certain experience, but equally it can just be a way to do something different from your usual day-to-day and gain a new understanding. There are a huge variety of different roles that HWR needs support with, so whatever your interests, skills and availability, there’s very likely to be something that can suit you. Get in touch to find out more!  We are delighted to introduce Brian Wedge, who will be joining Adrian as Treasurer, which will now be a shared role. Here we hear from Brian:
I spent most of my career in banking and when I retired I became involved with our local Credit Union in Dacorum and I am now the Chair. I became aware of HWR through friends and volunteered with them because I want to help other human beings. Having travelled widely I am well aware of how fortunate we are to live in the UK and how easy it is to take the benefits for granted. I started volunteering at our local hotel which housed Afghan refugees in 2021 and since then have helped with teaching English, driving education, installing furniture and various other roles. I still meet regularly with one of the people I helped and we are now good friends, learning from each other about our respective cultures. Taking on the Treasurer role with Adrian is rather daunting but I know the organisation is well run and that Adrian and the rest of the Management team will be there to help me learn on the job. HWR makes such a difference to refugees because it provides practical day-to-day support and is able to respond quickly to the needs of people who are dealing with a new language, culture and bureaucracy all at the same time. I have learned a lot from the people I have met and am sure I will continue to do so in my new role. Thank you Brian! We are still looking for people to help the finance team, if you think you can help see www.hertswelcomes.org.uk/volunteer.html or contact [email protected] Today we are delighted to feature Martin on our Volunteer Stories page. Martin tell us: "I’ve been a runner for about 30 years, and have done 8 marathons, most of them for various good causes … and I’ll be doing another one on March 10th, going round and round and round Willen Lake in Milton Keynes. And of course I’ll be raising funds for HWR! I know you all contribute enormously with your time, hard work and hard cash, but if you are able to support my marathon, the link is https://gofund.me/f5a30b46b, or you can scan this QR code. Thanks in advance for anything you can spare." Thank you so much Martin!   Christmas kindness – here you can see just a few examples of Christmas gifts and celebrations organised by volunteers for local refugees and asylum seekers.
At the last drop-in of the year, these included Christmas crafts in the playroom and 100 bags of Christmas gifts. At one of the hotels, gifts included 115 family packs of toiletries, 125 ‘Vinnie’ packs for adults and 148 bags with a variety of gifts, toys and chocolate for children from new born to young adults. It was an absolute delight to see so many happy. At another hotel a team of volunteers had packed 90 bags of goodies for distribution to adults. Special thanks go to Verso Vineyard Church for beautifully wrapped shoe boxes full of goodies for all the children spending Christmas at the hotel and the 14th St Albans Brownie Pack for their decorated shoe boxes, full of goodies, for those children who, along with their families, now have refugee status and are living close by. We couldn't do this without the dedication of our volunteers and our wonderful partners! A huge thank you to St. Catherine’s Church Hoddesdon and Broxbourne Churches Together for providing funding and donations and to our amazing distribution team of HWR and St.Catherine’s Church volunteers including Father Christmas. Thank you to the St Vincent de Paul Society for the Vinnie bags for cold weather. A big thank you to all the knitters of hats and socks, Goods for Good for donations of stationery, shower gel, bags and hats; and Beauty Banks for cosmetics and toiletries. We hope that these gifts will help the asylum seekers and refugees, who are separated from many of their loved ones back home, feel welcome in the UK this Christmas time, when many of us here get together with our family and friends. We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and thank you for all the support over the year. We will be back in January to continue supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Hertfordshire.  Today we were on four Heart Radio news broadcasts about the Government's immigration and asylum plans. Hear our volunteer Helen speak on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers we support: "We have been speaking to refugees and asylum seekers who we support and they are really worried. One refugee who volunteers with us said: 'people haven’t felt safe yet, they don’t feel like they have the sense of security, that they initially came and asked for.'" 
"We are in touch with refugees every day and know that these proposals lead to fear and uncertainty. We are dismayed that their chances of becoming British citizens are being made more and more difficult." |
