West London Welcome

In the latest of our Humans of West London Welcome series, asylum-seeking community member Astrid tells her story: "The first thing I’m going to do, if I’m allowed to stay, is buy a mixer to make my cakes. When I lived at home in Honduras, I used to bake and sell my things on social media. My favourite is called Tres Leches – made with three different kinds of milk. At the moment we can’t cook because we’re still living in an asylum hotel in London where there are no cooking facilities. Me, my husband Noe and our toddler son had to flee for our lives in 2022. We were being threatened by the Mara gang who wanted money from us which we didn’t have. I was pregnant with my second child, sick with worry and my blood pressure was very high. I was sure they were going to murder us. We moved three hours away out of our area to try to escape them, but they followed us. We didn’t know what to do. Eventually, we thought we had no choice but to leave the country. In England, the three of us were put up in an asylum hotel in Hammersmith. It was someone at the hotel who introduced us to West London Welcome. This was a godsend. I remember the first time we came one Tuesday, everyone was so friendly and kind. It felt really nice to find this place. Since then, they have helped us so much in so many ways – with my first appointment at the maternity unit, with English classes which are amazing and best of all introducing me to the mothers’ group on Fridays. It’s so great, as I get to meet with other mums, and we swap advice and chat and look after each others’ children. I feel at home here – it’s like my family. My second child Stacy was born here in West London and is part of this place. But I am very sad to be leaving. We are being moved to Sunderland this Friday. Our claim for asylum is at appeal stage but we don’t know when it will be decided. It feels awful to have to start again somewhere else. But I am hopeful and more confident now, thanks to West London Welcome. I like being with people, and ultimately I want to get a job, baking. My husband Noe was a mechanical engineer specialising in welding and laser soldering - he has useful skills and is keen to work. But also, I want to help people and to change the world in a small way, if I can." Our growing collection of Humans of West London Welcome stories can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eBJVJKzz #refugees #refugeeswelcome #hammersmith #london #westlondon

'Nada waltzed around the stage like she was headlining the Apollo.' For the past few months we've been partnering with Counterpoints Arts on comedy workshops, which have been incredible for increasing the confidence of our refugee community members and just so much fun. Read our volunteer Maddie London's excellent write-up: https://lnkd.in/etKe7bPg

Chioma’s story is part of the Humans of West London Welcome series, in which community members of West London Welcome share their stories: “I work in the NHS at Charing Cross Hospital as a healthcare worker these days, looking after people. I’m training to be a nurse and can’t wait to qualify. But it’s been a very long journey to get to do what I love. In 2019 I was forced to flee Nigeria for my life with my three young kids. I’d recently lost my husband and I was really vulnerable as a young widow facing many very dangerous situations on my own. I decided to come to London to seek asylum, since I had distant relatives here and I thought we would be safe. Only a few months after we arrived, Covid struck. My relatives told us we had to leave the house and we found ourselves homeless. We called the Home Office, who sent us to an asylum hotel in Hammersmith. It was incredibly isolating. The kids didn’t have enough to eat and I was sick with stress. It was a life-changing moment when Jo, WLW’s Director, invited me to WLW. The first thing she did was give me food vouchers – she saw I was frail. Leyla, WLW's Deputy Director, found us a great legal aid lawyer for our asylum claim. Our claim took several years, during which time we were forced by the Home Office to move four times. It was whilst I was in despair during Covid, thinking our asylum claim would never be granted, that something incredible happened. I saw a healthcare assistant job which I had just the right experience for, and asked WLW’s advice on how to get permission to work on the shortage occupation list. Amazingly I got the job. One wonderful day a few months later, we were granted refugee status. But after we got status we had to immediately leave our asylum housing and faced homelessness again. WLW’s Senior Caseworker Alison worked quickly and found us a landlord to rent us a flat here in Hammersmith. Now I’m working shifts and training as a nurse. But despite my work I’m still a part of the community at WLW. I volunteer and am close friends with other WLW members, especially other Nigerians. Every week it’s like coming back to my core support system.” https://lnkd.in/eKcUBDze

What do a chef, window cleaner and world-class cyclist have in common? In our new short film, four of our refugee community members – Nastassia, Vitali, Trhas and Najeem – speak about their histories, their experiences of West London, and love of our community. We loved working with filmmaker Nicola Roper to give a voice to the huge diversity of backgrounds, experiences, skills and wonderful personalities at our centre. --- Nastassia and Vitali are Belarusian political refugees who were at risk of long prison sentences for attending anti-government protests. Nastassia now works as a medical secretary via networks in our community, while Vitali, who is in cancer remission, runs his own window cleaning business. Trhas is an Ethiopian asylum-seeking elite cyclist living in a local asylum hotel, who we have found a legal aid lawyer for and are working with a cycling charity to get her back into competitive racing. She's just won her first race on British soil, has been featured in the BBC and the Guardian, and is regularly spotted by fellow Ethiopians around the neighbourhood who know her as a celeb back home. Najeem is an Afghan chef whose family were evacuated by the British from Afghanistan in 2001, but who had no choice but to make the dangerous journey to the UK alone by foot. We found him a legal aid lawyer and supported him on his journey to refugee status, and (massively luckily for us) employ him to cook his delicious recipes for our community until he inevitably opens his own restaurant. https://lnkd.in/enFfa3Dc

“I came to London from Uganda in 2018 after both my parents had died. I was 16, but the authorities decided to class me as an adult and I lived alone in a hostel. I had nobody to talk to apart from my brother. I’d already lost the sight in one eye after getting caught up in political violence in Uganda. After arriving here, I got ophthalmia in my other eye. Eventually I lost my sight completely. For a long time I barely left my room. One day the council told me about West London Welcome. Initially I was scared to take public transport alone to get there. But Sophie, a WLW volunteer and my neighbour, helped me learn to walk with a cane, and now I navigate the streets by myself. I’m getting more and more confident. I even recently tried rock-climbing through the Prince’s Trust and loved it. It’s the small things at WLW that mean the most. It’s the ‘hi Joseph, how are you?’ and the stuff we joke about together. Jo, WLW’s director, got me an iPhone so I can listen to audiobooks. Me and my friend Pari go on walks. And I’m in the book group. My favourite book we’ve read is Small Island by Andrea Levy, a story of four Jamaicans emigrating to London after World War II. The council say the difference in me in six months is astonishing. In April we were at Kew Gardens and my phone rang. It was a good lawyer who wanted to take on my asylum case, which WLW Deputy Director Leyla had organised. I was so relieved. My problems aren’t over though. I got here six years ago and my immigration status is unresolved. I feel like I’ve wasted years. I want to get a degree and become a lawyer to help others. But while in the asylum system I’m not allowed to work. My teacher Rick often brings in poems. He once read us ‘When I Consider How My Light is Spent’ by John Milton, on going blind late in life. Milton talks about his talent and spirit trapped inside him, and how he feels useless in a ‘dark world and wide’. That’s how I felt when I first came to London. But thanks to WLW my world isn’t dark and wide anymore. I have a community now.” - Joseph's story, the first in our #HumansofWestLondonWelcome series to mark the beginning of #RefugeeWeek.

Very young children are spending years living in tiny Home Office asylum hotel rooms. Our asylum-seeking mums, and Deputy Director Leyla, spoke to BBC News today about the impact this is having on children. The full BBC article with results of their freedom of information request, showing that 3,045 asylum-seeking children live in London asylum hotels, concentrated in West London, is here: https://lnkd.in/eSvSEiz5

Lunchtime delights this week: Our volunteer Najeem's phenomenal homemade Mantu Ashak - Afghan dumplings with leeks fried with coriander, cumin, tomatoes, split chickpeas, red onion, dill, chilli powder, cumin, yoghurt and black pepper. And homemade Ka’ak Asawer by our Palestinian community member Maysaa - sweet, spicy, crunchy ring cookies with cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, aniseed and nigella seeds, stuffed with soft sticky dates.

Unlike her elite cycling colleagues, our community member Trhas has to share a tiny asylum room with two others, is banned from working, and survives on just £8.86 a week a week from the Home Office. Thanks to your donations, we have bought her a professional bike, and this excellent report by the Guardian on her situation has even attracted a great legal aid lawyer to take on her case today! https://lnkd.in/ezqgHzKC

We are most happy to have our UK Team Africa Rising rep working with team at West London Welcome and Trhas directly on helping this elite athlete get the equipment and financial support she needs to ride, train and hopefully race! Great piece in The Guardian today by Diane Taylor on Trhas’ situation featuring our CEO Kimberly Coats on the situation, and we hope the UK Government also takes up her case and sees the value she will add to our sports and wider community. We are working hard on securing her the right equipment and funding and have the support of affinity cycling groups like Together We Ride also 👍 More on this soon! Let us know if you want to help or donate to her cause. Link in comments below… https://lnkd.in/eBw_B5hT

Want to know what actress Harriet Walter gets up to when she's not nailing acidic matriarch in the hugely acclaimed Succession? She lends her time and influence to an incredible London charity called West London Welcome, which offers case work help, home cooked food (incredibly important given what they're provided by the state), English tuition and other support and activities to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. Spending time with her and founder Joanne MacInnes and some of the people benefiting from their overwhelming care and attention, in a time of such toxic discourse around migration ('stop the boats' has echoes of Trump's 'build the wall'), you realise how much more we have in common than we think and that fear is the enemy. Find the interview and much, much more in the latest edition of Country & Town House out now. #asylumseekers #migrants #refugeeswelcome #newissue https://lnkd.in/e9HQdKeK