Refugee Week 2020: Keeping our sisters safe in Halifax!

This Refugee Week, we are sharing a series of blogs written by refugee and asylum-seeking women who are supporting other women in their local communities.

Today, Jolanda Skura (pictured right), Co-Founder of Sisters United, writes about their amazing work in Halifax.

Sisters United was set up in 2017 by and for women in Halifax. Many of us have lived experience of the UK’s asylum system. Supporting one another is our main objective and we have been doing this for a long time. But we are now facing many new and different challenges because of COVID-19. Now more than ever our sisters need help, but due to the pandemic we have had to close the doors of our centre where we used to meet every week to provide vital support to vulnerable women.

We support women who are seeking asylum, who are forced to live on £5.39 a day. Many other women, who have been refused asylum, are living completely destitute with no support at all. These women are struggling to survive. They are some of the most vulnerable people in our country and the government has completely abandoned them.

When the crisis started, sisters started speaking to each other about how we can support the women in our group. First, we messaged everyone, sharing information about the virus and the lockdown measures, and we’ve continued to do this through our WhatsApp group. We then started calling all the women on a weekly basis to check they understood what was going on and the official guidance, and to see if they needed any support with food, medicine, and other basics. Many sisters don’t have a TV or internet access, so we needed to make sure they were aware of how to keep themselves safe. We found this difficult at times, as not all women speak English, but we managed; nothing is impossible!

We have been topping up women’s phones so that they can call us or a community member if they need help. Some of the women we support haven’t been able to get to the supermarkets to buy food because they have no money or because they are more vulnerable due to their age or a serious medical condition. So we have also been helping them access food parcels from community organisations and churches. We have helped with clothes and cleaning products, especially for those who live in shared houses with non-family members and who are therefore more vulnerable to catching the virus.

Accessing school meal vouchers has been a big challenge for asylum-seeking women who are struggling to feed their children. Some sisters didn’t receive the vouchers and we had to contact the schools many times to advocate for them. Many sisters are single parents and being alone during this time has been really challenging. ‘What is going to happen to my children, if something happens to me?’ I have heard this many times since the pandemic.

These mothers also need WiFi and laptops or tablets so that they can support their children’s learning while they are not at school, but that has been really difficult to access. What felt good though was when we managed to find two bicycles for a couple of kids. A sister who received one for her son thanked us so many times. He was so happy to play with it!

All of this work is being done by amazing volunteers! Their work is needed every day, and I want to thank them for always trying their best to make sure our sisters are safe. But what is the government doing for us?

We are proud to work alongside wonderful women like Jolanda and the members of Sisters United.

To stay updated on their work, follow Sisters United on Twitter and Facebook!

by admin

Refugee Week 2020: Refugee women are organising to provide mutual aid in Coventry

This Refugee Week, we are sharing a series of blogs written by refugee and asylum-seeking women who are supporting other women like themselves in their local communities.

Today we are kicking off with this blog by Loraine Masiya Mponela, chairperson of the Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG).

The arrival of Covid-19 brought various challenges to people in this country and the world over. Here at CARAG we are not spared. We needed to provide food to some of our members who by nature of things, have no access to cooking facilities or are on no support at all. The idea of cooking came up and some of the women in CARAG volunteered to render their services by cooking from their own kitchens.

Last, who is one of the people who has offered her kitchen and time to prepare the meals, said:

"Everyone needs food. I cannot sit back and relax knowing there are others who need food."

With the help of material and financial donations from members of our local community and other funders, we quickly managed to get the #Right2AMeal project off the ground.

We set up a team of local volunteers to coordinate the delivery of meals where they are needed most. The latest to join the army of volunteers for the delivery of cooked meals is our local MP, Zarah Sultana, and her team! One member of her team told me,

"It is humbling and inspiring to see asylum seekers and refugees organising and fighting for a dignified life and we want to be a part of that by doing whatever we can to work together indefinitely. That's what drives us to volunteer with CARAG."

And during one of the deliveries, Zarah Tweeted:

We have received enormous support from local organisations and individuals, including messages of solidarity, like this one from Minda Burgos-Lukes, an organiser and consultant in social justice and change:

"Incredible effort from CARAG, though I am not at all surprised. CARAG has always practiced mutual aid, long before many learnt what it is during this pandemic, offering great support and care across the community and to each other."

We are just happy that we are able to do this so no-one we are in touch with goes to bed hungry. After all, women who are seeking asylum already have enough to worry about, including but not limited to the pandemic.

We are proud to work alongside wonderful women like Loraine and the members of CARAG.

To stay updated on their work, visit their new website: www.carag.co.uk or follow them on Twitter! Loraine is also on Twitter, follow her here.

by admin