Friends mark Refugee Week

This year's theme was 'We Cannot Walk Alone'

Quakers celebrated Refugee Week last month with a range of action and support. Sheila Mosley from the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (QARN) said that the week, from 14-20 June, is an important time ‘when people come together to raise a positive and collective voice of welcome, to give voice to people who have lived experience of being in the system, and to draw attention to changes that are needed. This year the theme was “We Cannot Walk Alone”.’

Cambridge Quakers held a panel discussion at Jesus Lane Meeting House featuring refugees and Quaker sanctuary volunteers. Wells-next-the-Sea Meeting hosted a pop-up cafe and stalls in their burial grounds to raise funds for a picnic bench for the New Routes organisation’s allotment group. Meanwhile, Guilden Morden Meeting ran a stall in Biggleswade market for Bigg Welcome, which supports the resettlement of a refugee family in the ‘Reset’ scheme. ‘We now have over £7,500 towards the target of £9,000,’ said one local Friend.

Huddersfield Meeting also showed its support with members of the Kirklees Sanctuary Clothing Project holding a summer picnic in its gardens. Writing on the Facebook page, one volunteer said: ‘The sun shone, the sky was beautiful, the Quaker gardens a haven of peace, the birds sang, music was played… But most magical of all was the sound of voices and laughter as old friendships were rekindled.’ A group of Quaker ‘craftivists’ also created a toolkit for art activities, such as people chains, to raise public awareness.

Meanwhile QARN members who have been supporting the Camp Residents of Penally [CRoP] – an organisation of men who had been placed in the now-closed Penally Barracks – created a charity called Life Seekers Aid, to support those in the asylum system. The group began a Twitter feed in Refugee Week, with the support of Art is an Avenue, a not-for-profit group.

Sheila Mosley said she wanted to highlight the work of people who have lived experience of the issues. They included Loraine Masiya Mponela who wrote a poem for Refugee Week, which is now on the StatusNow4All website.

Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) is running a ‘Celebrating Sanctuary, the road ahead’ event in July to prepare for the end of the centrally managed Sanctuary Everywhere programme.

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