Showing posts with label remember. Show all posts
We all need to be diligent advocates
Subscribe to JRS-UK Community Blog by Email
Louise Zanré, Director of JRS UK, shares her vision for a better world and invites us to join advocacy efforts alongside refugees to make the case for their dignity
Advocacy is one of the three parts of the JRS mission. We often spend a lot more time on accompaniment and service - I suspect because many of us attracted to working for JRS are what I think of as being at heart "people persons". We derive energy and inspiration from being present both with and two the people we accompany. We build relationships and endeavour to offer and to receive hope, dignity and justice through those relationships. And we often do not make enough of the advocacy opportunities we have had and the fact that peoples' lives are changed as a result.
Being a "people person" myself I get a great deal of pleasure from meeting new people and having the opportunity of explaining to them a little about the reality of the lives of the people we accompany, whether those left destitute by the asylum system in the UK or those who have been detained, and the work of JRS. As a person of faith and conviction I base much of that message I share on the values underpinning the mission of JRS. I dream of a new world of dignity and justice, where everyone is treated with equality and compassion. I hope that, when I speak to groups, or at events; when I have meetings with civil servants, politicians; when I attend network meetings of partner organisations; when I write articles, that I am able to speak with truth, compassion and with passion and that the people I address or meet with are better equipped to conceive of and to want to work towards that new world.
It is a big ask - of myself and of those listening - and I am sure that I am not always as effective as I might be. It is also a big ask as we are up against so much. There are too many myths about refugees and asylum seekers. The world is far from perfect and sometimes the issues we are confronted with can seem to be insurmountable. It is difficult to know what response to make to the fact that so many people are being forced to risk dangerous journeys to get to Europe; to the fears that so many people have over competition for resources, jobs, housing or health care provision.
However it is especially at this time when things can seem to be so dark and depressing that it is of particular importance that we do try our best to counter a prevailing message of blame, of not being able to be generous, of not being able to participate together in society.
A new immigration bill was announced recently in the Queen's speech. Unsurprisingly, the highlights make for pretty depressing reading - landlords having to check immigration status of prospective tenants to determine if they can legally rent housing to them, appeal rights only being permissible in immigration cases after deportation, making it more difficult for immigrants to get bank accounts, making money earned from illegal working the proceeds of criminal activity and therefore able to be confiscated, to name a very few. On top of existing restrictions they make the UK a very unwelcoming place indeed.
In the face of this we all need to be diligent advocates. We will be sharing with you campaigns against particular measures - whether to stop indefinite detention; to try and convince our government to resettle more refugees; or to lobby MPs about the immigration bill. But we will also be asking you to listen to the experiences of our refugee friends, their hopes and dreams. And we will be asking you to work with us to dream a new world, to try to be more welcoming ourselves in everything we do or say, to challenge injustice and to pray and reflect. Without our refugee friends and without you, nothing I nor JRS can do will substantially change things.
A Prayer for Our Mothers and Children on Mothering Sunday
A prayer from 'Alexandra' who comes to JRS each week and is currently studying at college. She is part of our women's group and her prayer helps us reflect on the occasion of Mothering Sunday, this weekend 30th March. Many of the women who come to JRS have children back home.
Prayer for Africa
Prayer for those children who don't have food and water.
Prayer for women who manage always to look for something for their children so they can eat every day
Prayer for all women give them wisdom
Prayer for all women in world to be educated because if women are educated all nations will be educated.
Subscribe to JRS-UK Community Blog by Email
Hot and Cold
I REMEMBER
I remember when my mother was waking me up
In the morning for bath.
In the morning for bath.
The water was so cold,
She kept saying she ain’t got moneyTo heat the water
Every drop of the water on my body
Causing drops of tears, I remember.
In the morning bathing was a hell.
7 o’clock in the morning after bath
She dressed me up and served me breakfast
The school was miles away
And I had no money to pay for my bus ticket.
In the morning walking to school was a hell.
A long sandy road in the noon
Full of hot sand, I remember.
My feet got burnt
When walking back home from school.
However the drop of rain can be heard
And puts a smile on my face as I can walk
Without feeling the heat of the sun in the noon.
DESTITUTE
Each journey entails a hundred possibilities.
I have been thinking all my life
To make my way to this land,
Many of us called the rich land.
But when I reached
This so-called rich land,
It’s like a white storm,
The whole land is so cold
As Arctic
With no home, no shelter.
These two poems by ‘Naz’ appeared in the New Londoners magazine for their Refugee Week 2013 special supplement. You can read an interview with their author and more information about the partnership between JRS-UK and English PEN charity that ran our creative writing workshops here: www.thenewlondoners.co.uk
