Kate Wrangham-Briggs: Volunteering with HWR – my winding path

Kate Wrangham-Briggs

We were thrilled that our volunteer Kate shared her experiences so eloquently at our AGM.  Here you can read what Kate said:

We all come into HWR in slightly different ways – often like me through a friend already volunteering. Back in early 2019 my friend Frances, whose husband Simon died suddenly last month (or she would have been here tonight), knew my career had been in English language teaching and writing, and also that I had run a food programme for schoolchildren in Uganda for 15 years, when we built kitchens, water butts and funded a daily mug of maize porridge for two large schools.  This was different, but my arm was twisted, I’m happy to say, and I duly signed up. I was originally asked to befriend a Syrian “mother-in-law who doesn’t go out much”.  It turned out she had spent time in Egypt before coming here and had never had the opportunity to learn any English.  More about her in a second. 
Then in May that year, I was asked to give ESOL support to Enas, a young woman recently arrived with her mother from Syria, also via Egypt where she and her parents had fled to 5 years before. All these people came on the Government Resettlement Scheme, though sadly in Enas’s case, without her father who died unexpectedly in Egypt. 

So where did my path take me? 
Back to my mother-in-law partner. For several months we had fun looking at, cutting up, pasting and playing games from Rosemary Picking and Margarete Prudden’s book First Resort, which I’m sure many of you know and use.  
Then came the pandemic in March 2020.  My relationship with her changed completely.  In fact it marked the end of our weekly contact.  She struggled too much with remote learning, and the family asked me to move on to teaching her son and daughter-in-law instead.  We all had to realise fast that life was now utterly different and that we would have to adapt to a new normal, including the fact that the word zoom had taken on a new meaning. Suddenly it didn’t mean whizzing about to different places, it meant doing something in the same place.  So once we’d figured out how to mute, unmute, chat and screenshare the family and I set out together on our new virtual journey.  The next turning came in the form of their 13 year old daughter.  A bit of zoom schooling started!  She was always very well prepared with her materials and instructions – I was the one who wasn’t prepared.  I never knew if we were about to study Martin Luther King, volcanoes, French, music theory or the mysteries of Greek myths.  But we got there, or at least somewhere, and she was able to send off her completed work to her teachers, with a little more confidence than might otherwise have been the case.  
Meanwhile my own path then took another turning.  Enas wanted to go to Middlesex University to study Interior Design.  Would I (or anyone) be willing to prepare her for the IELTS test – the English test that most universities require from international students.  I agreed to meet her – of course by zoom.  What I found was someone whose motivation was phenomenal.  Some had said that it might be better to study English for another year before trying the IELTS.  On the face of it, this seemed a good idea, but she was nothing if not determined and in a hurry.
She soon discovered that she would be allowed to take the DUOLINGO test instead of the more difficult IELTS.  Not long after that, she passed and became an undergraduate – all by zoom, never having set foot in a British university.  So began our next 3 years together, meeting some 4 hours a week, including in the vacations, she from her home, me from my home, and later from Dublin and Seattle too, where my children live, until she gained her degree.  Her graduation was a ceremony I’ll never forget. I don’t know anyone who deserved it more.  We are still in touch and regularly see each other, for real now.  And there are her lovely paintings.  Please take a moment to have a good look at them. 
 
So what have I learnt and not learnt? 
Firstly I’ve learnt a good deal about interior design! 
I’ve also developed deep admiration for both the Syrian families I have been lucky enough to be involved with. I admire them for simply coping, accepting, adapting, facing health problems with courage and patience, their learning capacity, for their hospitality, their skills and talents and their forbearance and resilience in the face of frustrating circumstances not of their own making.  Would I be as strong as this?  I often wonder… 
What haven’t I learnt?  Apart from Arabic, to my shame, I haven’t learnt enough about the bureaucracy many of our partners face, in obtaining Leave to Remain or becoming a British citizen. It’s a complicated business, expensive, time-consuming and stressful.  Of course, if unqualified, we are not entitled to offer official advice, any more than we should do the job of a social worker or an immigration lawyer, or a medic – although my friend Frances did find herself delivering a baby in a taxi some years ago I believe.  Fortunately she was a nurse, but it did give me a momentary pause for thought about volunteering.  My point is that informing ourselves about the likely steps they have to take, and about the changes that regularly come into force, puts us in a stronger position to be able to help when called upon, and to learn where the boundaries of our expertise lie. In my experience, my partners negotiate the maze of red tape extraordinarily well.  What they have needed most from me has been help with the B1 English language oral test – which changed its format a year or two ago - and the building of confidence to assess if/when they were ready to pass. 
​
So what next?
What about when our partners are at last settled in terms of accommodation, schools, language and other courses, and hopefully jobs? In my case, one person is keen to continue with some English language lessons, others like to keep in touch socially. Our relationships remain strong, and even though we meet less often, it is interesting and fun to allow our conversations to wander down whatever winding path they might take us!
So, my motto is expect the unexpected – and go with the flow!  There is always something round the corner, waiting to steer our energy and skills in unanticipated directions. 
So let me wish you all, the very best in your own winding path.