Asylum Speakers Podcast with Jaz O'Hara: Stories of Migration and Displacement

Period Poverty. You might no know what this term means yet, but this episode will tell you everything you need to know.

In it we hear from six incredible women from five organisations working to tackle period poverty from the ground up. If you would like to find out more about their wonderful work, check them out here:

Ella Lambert - founder of The Pachamamma Project

Melissa Robel - founder of Pads 4 Refugees

Dara Foi'Elle - Syrian Eyes Team

Dalal - The Free Shop Lebanon

Meelie Pemberton - founder of Wing Woman Lebanon

Abir - employee of Wing Woman Lebanon

To support our podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

To check out our amazing sponsor Love Welcomes: https://www.lovewelcomes.org/

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This International Women's Day, It's only right that I bring you the story of one of the most incredible women that I know... Khalida Popal.

Khalida grew up playing football with her brothers in Afghanistan, and even though she faced serious discrimination from her community as a result, she went on to form the Afghan women’s football league with her friends. Despite death threats at the hands of extremist and anti-women's-rights groups, she went on to be the first woman on the board of the Afghan football federation, the first female employee of the federation, and the captain of the Women’s National Team after being the driving force behind it’s growth.

But as Khalida’s profile grew, so too did the threat to her safety, and Khalida was forced to leave Afghanistan and begin her journey as a refugee. After living in various refugee camps she has been granted asylum in Denmark, but has never lost ties with her homeland. 

Last year, when the Taliban seized power of Afghanistan, Khalida worked tirelessly to campaign for the safe evacuation of the Afghan women’s football teams, who had become targets to the Taliban (who do not allow women to participate in or even attend sporting events). Khalida rallied the international community and was eventually successful in safely evacuating over 300 people - the players and their familes, to both Australia and the UK. 

Khalida continues to advocate for the rights of women and girls through her organisation Girl Power, which uses sport as a tool to empower, connect and unify women and girls from all cultures and social backgrounds. 

This episode is brought to you by Love Welcomes: https://www.lovewelcomes.org/

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

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Today’s podcast episode is about a country very close to my heart - Sudan.

Like most people in the UK, I grew up without any knowledge of what was happening in Sudan. In my history lessons at school I learnt about the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing that happened during the second world war, but I learnt nothing about the current genocide in Sudan that continues to this day. 

It wasn’t until I went to uni and I somehow blagged my way onto a scholarship programme to study Mandarin in Beijing, (a story for another time), but I was sharing a room with a now good friend of mine Anna, who was studying the genocide in Darfur (a region in Sudan) for her degree. She was my first introduction to the situation there. She gave me the context, she told me stories about what she was reading, and I remember lying in bed one night in our room in Beijing, watching a film together called ‘Attack on Darfur’ - a hollywoodised, but pretty accurate depiction of what is happening there.

That film still haunts me honestly. This is a warning for anyone who watches it - it was the most heartbreaking film I’ve ever seen, but it served a very important purpose for me. 

Fast forward about 5 years or so and I found myself in the Calais Jungle refugee camp for the first time, chatting to a guy there who told me he was from Darfur. As he talked about how his village had been burnt to the ground and he showed me the scars on his legs from where bullets had hit him, I thought back to that film and those conversations with Anna, and I was grateful that I knew even just a little bit about what he was telling me. I realised though that I still had a lot to learn.

Since then, I’ve met many wonderful Sudanese people along my journey. I’m happy to call some of them my best friends, you guys might remember my conversation with Awad in Episode 2, and I also have a Sudanese foster brother. 

This episode comes after many conversations with them about the best way to encourage understanding and awareness for the people of Sudan. It aims to be a comprehensive introduction into the history, but through personal stories that make this information accessible to everyone.

In it we hear from three wonderful women sharing their knowledge and stories about Sudan. First, Sonja and Maddy, from an amazing organisation called Waging Peace who support the Sudanese community in the UK, then Marwa, who shares her personal experience of living in and leaving Sudan. Her testimony is an honour to be able to include and share with you. 

To learn more about Waging Peace: https://wagingpeace.info/

To check out the products made by our lovely sponsor: https://www.lovewelcomes.org/ (use the code WWT for 10% off at checkout)

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I’m so excited to introduce you to our guest for this episode... Syrian filmmaker, activist and most recently, author, Hassan Akkad!

Hassan is the very first person I ever heard speak about their experience leaving Syria first hand, and it’s safe to say that it had a huge impact on me. Not only has Hassan shared his incredible story through talks and at events, he actually first became known for filming his journey from Syria to the UK - and his iconic footage was shown on the BBC documentary, Exodus back in 2016 for which he won a BAFTA. Since then, Hassan’s passion and dedication to telling his and other important stories has taken him all over the world, including to his local hospital where he worked as a cleaner during the pandemic.

In September last year, Hassan published his incredible memoir, Hope not Fear. I read it in a couple of days and even though I thought I knew his story, it absolutely blew me away. 

In today’s episode we talk about his journey, his book, how candid he was in it, who he didn’t want to read it and why, and at the end he tells the story of the beautiful reunion he recently had with his family after many years of not being together. 

You can find Hassan's book here

This episode is sponsored by the incredible Love Welcomes (Remember to use the code WWT at checkout for 10% off.)

To support this show and keep us sharing these stories, you can donate here: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

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This is an extra special bonus episode in which I ask some of my amazing previous podcast guests - 'What does Freedom mean to you?'

As we come to the end of Season 5, it felt good to touch base with a few old friends of the show, as well as to explore a theme I have been discussing with the team at Amnesty UK - human rights.

We all know we have rights, no matter where we come from, but not everyone (including myself) is super clear on what their human rights actually are.

@AmnestyUK have come up with a campaign called #KnowYourFreedoms, to help raise awareness about the four essential freedoms that belong to all of us. As part of this campaign I have put together a very special bonus episode of the podcast to explore the concept of freedom and what it actually means.

The freedom to be whoever you were born to be is a fundamental human right <3

#CreativeCommission #FreedomToImagine

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I’ve got a bit of a different episode from normal in store for you today as I’m going to take you with me on a really fun experience I had recently.... a Lebanese cookery class.

Let me explain... My guest this week is Ahmad Sinnu. We met through one of my all time favourite organisations Migrateful. Migrateful run cookery classes led by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who are otherwise struggling to integrate or access employment. These cookery classes are absolutely amazing. They not only provide the teachers with ideal conditions for learning English and building confidence, but also promoting connection and cultural exchange with their new community - and as a participant, you learn something new and you get to eat it which is a win-win for me. 

I’ve been to a couple of these classes in person now, and also done one online, and they’re awesome. Anything that revolves around food makes me happy and these classes bring together everything I love - cooking, eating and meeting new and interesting people from all over the world. 

So a couple of weeks ago i went to Ahmad’s Lebanese cooking class to learn how to make vegan moussaka and tabbouleh. Ahmad is an asylum seeker. He left Lebanon 6 years ago after being shot on two separate occasions, leaving him in a wheelchair. He worked for the Lebanese red cross and learnt to cook when his parents passed away when he was young. 

So the first part of this episode is the cookery itself, and the second half if a beautiful conversation I had with Ahmad the following day. I hope you enjoy it!

To find out more or book your own cookery class: https://www.migrateful.org/

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

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For anyone who doesn’t remember the incredible story of the Stansted 15 - they are a group of human rights activists who organised a non-violent action to stop a deportation flight leaving from Stansted on the night of the 28 March 2017.

The plane they stopped from leaving the UK was chartered by the UK Home Office to deport 60 people to Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Amongst these people were several victims of human trafficking. 
Most deportations in the UK take place on normal scheduled flights with other passengers not being deported, but up to 2,000 people a year are deported on these secretive mass deportation flights, specifically chartered by the Home Office. They take place at night, and the passengers are often shackled in chains and waist restraint belts or leg restraints. 

This is what the Stansted 15 wanted to expose. Their aim was to stop these charter flights from happening altogether.

What actually happened after that day, was the group were arrested, and instead of being charged with aggravated trespassing, the usual charge for a non-violent action like this at an airport, they were charged with terrorism charges carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison. Almost two years after the action they endured a 10-week-trial and were initially found guilty, but this conviction was eventually overturned in January of this year and their names were cleared.

Very importantly, as a result of their action, 11 of those 60 people due to be deported that night, now legally live in the UK. To me, thats a huge success. 

I closely followed this story as it was unfolding and have always wanted to talk to a member of this group. I’ve just always thought it was an absolutely incredible thing to do. So I reached out to a few of them for this episode and got the general sense that this whole process had taken a huge emotional toll on them all, and they were busy trying to rebuild a sense of normality.

But one member of the group, Mel, was happy to meet me and invited me to her house. I was immediately totally enamoured by her as soon we met and we spent the afternoon together chatting, she made us sandwiches and we went for a walk in the forest. Mel has a real sense of calm and a sweetness and strength about her that hopefully comes through in this conversation. This story is so inspiring to me and I hope you enjoy it .

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This episode of The Worldwide Tribe podcast is dedicated to the people of Afghanistan. It was recorded in response to the devastating events we have seen unfold there over the last few weeks as the Taliban has taken over the country. 

My guest this week is Rustam Wahab - a 19 year old British Afghan who has single-handedly become the go to source on Instagram, for up to date information on the situation on the ground. Rustam has been running a popular British politics page on Instagram for a while, called UK Fact Check Politics but this last week, his personal instagram page has grown from just a few thousand followers, to a quarter of a million followers as he tirelessly updates us there on what is happening in Afghanistan. Rustam is incredible and if he’s doing this at 19, who knows where he’ll be at 29, 39 or 49. I know I’m excited to find out. 

This conversation blew me away. It's both informative and emotional and I hope it's helpful.

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A very special episode for you today!

I’ve been trying to get my dad on the podcast for ages, and finally, here he is! 

Having heard my mum’s perspective of fostering, lots of you have been interested to hear from my dad, for his take on parenting so many kids from all these different countries. My dad has always been a little more private when it comes to sharing his story or being on Instagram, so it came as an amazing surprise this week that he was felt ready and keen to talk to me for this episode. It's another very personal one for me and I share some family updates about Mez's brother at the beginning. Talking to my dad made me feel a LOT. I always knew he would have some beautiful insights to share, and he didn't disappoint. I hope you enjoy the realness he brings today.

Jaz

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I LOVED recording this episode!

My guest this week is the most requested guest on this podcast ever - Holly Penalvar, founder of Indigo Volunteers. 

Holly is an absolute ray of sunshine and known in this sector, not just for her amazing work coordinating thousands of volunteers, but for always doing so with a smile on her face so I think you guys probably knew that she would bring some joy and good vibes to the podcast. 

Indigo volunteers is where I direct anyone wanting to volunteer within the refugee space. They directly connect volunteers with one of the 48 grassroots humanitarian projects and organisations that they partner with. They do so ethically, for free (unlike lots of other money making organisations that profit from placing volunteers), and they also carefully place people based on their skills and preferences. 

On a personal level, Holly and I have always connected over our similar journeys working in this sector, from plunging head first into the grassroots response to the European refugee crisis back in 2016, and being on a steep learning curve ever since. 

A recent headline about Holly in the metro read:

“I quit my job and ended my marriage to volunteer in greece with refugees. I helped thousands, met a new love and had a baby” - we talk about this journey that she’s been on today, from leaving everything behind in England, to 8 weeks ago, giving birth in Holland to baby Matteo with her Dutch partner Stijn who she met whilst volunteering in Thessaloniki. 

To find out more about Indigo Volunteers:

https://www.indigovolunteers.org/

To support this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/theworldwidetribe

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