A new print making class for Refugee and Asylum Seeking Women will run in association with Refugee Action by Leicester Printing Workshop’s resident artist Claire Morris-Wright. The workshops are completely FREE and will take place on the first Tuesday each month from 1pm – 3pm until September 2012.
In July 2011, we received a grant from the Leicestershire fund of £4865 to support us in our work at the drop-in centre. We are incredibly grateful for this grant and hope to use some of that money to provide lunches and to pay some of the asylum seekers’ bus fares. Many of them live on the outskirts of town – Braunstone Frith, Hamilton, Beaumont Leys etc – and their return bus fares are in the region of £4 – a lot of money to find out of a weekly budget of £35!
If you would like to support our work with asylum seekers then please visit our ‘what you can do’ page.
New leaflets about our work for use with both schools and adults have been prepared and printed and are proving very useful. If anyone would like copies to distribute then please contact us .
We also visit schools and other organisations to do presentations – if you would like a speaker to come and talk to you about Leicester City of Sanctuary then please do contact us.
The drop-in centre has now been open for a couple of months and attendee numbers are growing. The centre has hosted a number of activities including a very successful ‘Computing for Beginners’ course run by the Zinthiya Trust, regular sewing classes and LUSH ran a ‘pampering day’ for our ladies which was enormously popular and they plan to come in at regular intervals. We also have an immigration solicitor who will hold surgeries at the drop-in on alternate weeks. Keep an eye on our events page for all classes and activities that are run at the drop-in centre.
Last winter many asylum seekers, and others in need, were provided with food, other essentials, and a very warm welcome by volunteers from many backgrounds who got involved with the Islamic Society of Britain (ISB) initiative Eat’n‘Meet. They managed to provide hot food and bags containing essential food and toiletry items to hundreds of vulnerable people in Leicester.
Earlier this year we were contacted by high-street shop LUSH, who had heard about our work and were interested in getting involved in supporting us and local asylum seekers.
On Thursday 16th June, the shop spent the afternoon at our drop-in centre giving hand and foot treatments and massages, with lots of goodies from the shop to give away to the satisfied customers including a soap that smelled of chocolate! This went so well that they have agreed to come again and also raise money for us through their Charity Pot.
On Saturday 25th June 2011, there will be a 6-a-side international football tournament to raise awareness for Refugee Week. It will be at St. Margaret’s Pasture’s Sports Centre, St Margarets Way, LE1 3EA from 9:00am – 5:00pm. There will be fun and games for all the family so do come along.
The deadline for team entries is Monday 13th June 2011. More information can be found on our events page.
On Thursday 16th June 2011, from 1pm – 4pm, staff from high street shop LUSH will be doing a pampering session at the drop-in centre. They will be offering hand massages, foot treatments, face masks and freebies…so call in and prepare to be pampered!
Leicester City of Sanctuary’s drop-in centre has now been open for a few weeks and has a growing number of regular activities on offer (see our events page). It is open every Thursday from 1 – 4pm, so drop into St Martins House to see what’s on offer.
Our new drop-in centre was opened on Thursday 12th May 2011. It is in St Martins House, 7 Peacock Lane (the old school next to the Cathedral in the city centre). A team of volunteers spent several days before it opened, sorting and moving furniture from the store on Abbey Lane, where it had been since the closure of our premises in the old Barclay’s Bank, and cleaning the new venue. Pam Inder (Leicester City of Sanctuary’s Volunteer Coordinator) comments: “Everything in there was thick with dust and the floor was unbelievably filthy and stained with black bitumen. However, a pungent cocktail of paint stripper and chemicals worked wonders, especially when followed by Mick Walker and his patent technique of cleaning with a-brillo-pad-attached-to the-sole-of-the-shoe …”
What does the word refuge mean to you? Enter our ‘My Refuge‘ competition anytime during June 2010, using any medium you choose: a poem, a photograph, a film clip, a drawing, in writing, an audio clip, a painting …..
Below is an example from the Refugee Week Simple Acts website, visit the site for many more ideas:
A refuge is not where I’m from or where I want to be, but it’s where I can go to to get back to being who I want.
Click on Refugee Week 2010 – 20 ‘simple acts’! to the right for full details and an entry form!
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