Standing with Refugees #AidwithDignity

Brighton-based Steve started Refugee Radio 10 years to create an arts programme with refugees but it quickly morphed into a mental health support service.

Steve talks about this critical servce, but also in the context of the last decade working with refugees and the UK bureaucracy. Although the UK and Europe are still reluctant to resettle and support refugees, attitudes have improved. Although we've seen a right wing backlash over the last 2 years, it was a lot worse.

Seeing pictures of tragedy raises awareness but what can we do to create more compassionate, welcoming attitudes? Frequently we hear an economic argument but what about demonstrating that these people are humans, just like you and me.

Refugee Radio has also organised a public event at the Old Courtroom, opposite the Brighton Dome, from 4pm-6pm on Saturday 20th January. A diverse panel of voices will be discussing the politics and policies affecting refugees.

Chair: Jacob Berkson (Thousand 4 1000)Rossel Ahmed (Sussex Syrian Community)Medyan Dairieh (Vice News)Ivo Kuka (Southern Cameroons National Council)Alex Mkuva Ntung (Education 4 Diversity)Andrew Wealls (Conservative Party)

All welcome. Details here or on facebook

Meerfez is 25 and lives in Filippiada camp with his wife. Left with no choice and under tragic circumstances, he left Afghanistan in 2015 and is trying to reach his brother in Germany.

With great calm and dignity, Meerfez describes an epic journey but frustration at being held in Greece while his brother, who is just 17, is struggling in Germany on his own.

Living conditions in Filippiada are quite good, and much better than on the islands, but he wants his whole family to be together. And yet he waits...

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Austin is aged 20 from the USA and Sue is 68 from the UK, but they are both united by a desire to put others first. They are fantastic volunteers who have given up their time and energy to help refugees in Greece and do the important job of co-ordinating our other volunteers' activities on the camps.

They talk about what motivated them to come and to come back (5 times in Sue's case!), what they like about the job and what is tough. 

Volunteering with the right attitude is extremely rewarding. It's about putting others first, staying cheerful and showing empathy not just for what refugees have to endure but for our fellow volunteers. 

Please listen to these 2 fine humans and celebrate our unity in diversity.

Mimi started helping refugees in Europe two years ago and in that time she and her organisation Soup & Socks have had to adapt and change what they do. They started with a community kitchen on camp that got shut down by the army so they evolved their project into something more sustainable. This is where Habibi Works was born.

We think it is the best volunteer-run project in Greece. It is a fantastic case study in learning, trying new things and creating something truly special. At the heart of it is a desire to create something genuinely empowering.

“Everything we do is about empowerment. We don’t want people to depend on us, we don’t want them to be passive. We want them to be active, we want them to create solutions for their daily life challenges themselves.“

 

A conversation with someone inspirational and lessons for anyone from volunteer on the ground to the manager of a large organisation.

Dina Nayeri had to leave Iran as a refugee at the age obf 8 and first stayed in a reception centre in Italy before going on to have a successful international academic and literary career. In April 2017, she wrote a brilliant and insightful artcile for the Guardian called The ungrateful refugee which was read widely.

Dina says that host countries expect refugees to be thankful to them for providing a safe place to live. And that refugees are under pressure to express it. But don't they really have a right to be given refuge and importantly, be given the option to develop the way they want to without feeling like they need to pay something back? Not surprisingly, this was controversial.

She also talks movingly about what life was like as a child refugee and the impact that time has had. We talk about the need for dignity and why the way that people receive support is more important that what they receive.

Dina has published two novels A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea and Refuge.

We met Vickie at this year's Meaning Conference talking about Medecins sans Frontieres' guiding principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence. 

MSF have a long history working in the most difficult circumstance and having to make difficult choices. Vickie talks about how these principles and medical ethics help with many of the difficult decisions she and the organisation need to make with limited resources and enormous needs.

Do they focus on preventive health, non-communicable needs, acute malnutirition, trauma? And what is their campaigning role, calling out the causes of these crises? How do they restore dignity and what does that mean?

Like us, MSF is also in Bangladesh and we talk about the dilemmas there: 

“At the moment, we’re focussed on ensuring that people have what they need to survive. Over time, you can look at bringing in some of those activities that start to bring a bit of normal activity into people’s lives...but how can you normalise a situation where you’ve got a million people living together in really unsuitable circumstances? Do we want to normalise that? And those people don’t want to be refugees forever.”

John has been following the plight of the Rohingya for some years and when there was yet another exodus in August this year he became very keen to help. In September we were lucky to meet a team of experienced people who wanted to join us and he has just returned from 2 weeks in Bangladesh getting us started.

We talk candidly about how you go about helping in a sudden acute crisis with over a million refugees, the challenges, the other organisations out there and what our role can be.

It is of course impossible to help everybody but we have found a camp of 6000 people and as this podcast goes out we will be doing our first distribution of fruit and vegetables, specifically focussing on the under 5s.

You can help by donating here

Abdul-Salam's family had to escape from Deir ez-Zur after ISIL laid seige to it and made life impossible. He describes what that was like and the perilous, life-threatening journey they made. Despite these horrors, this family is still cheerful, optimistic and proud. Their resilience is inspirational.

“Our request is not impossible. We want medical care and education. We want peace, security and stability. Like other people. And we want to go back to Syria and to live in peace.”

John Sloan talks to Daniel about his journey into humanitarian work from Nepal to Afghanistan to Greece to Bangladesh. It is in the genes and he started young!

Daniel is pivotal to our work supporting the Rohingya in Bangladesh so talks about why aid with dignity and co-operation is so important.

We also learn about the importance of holding your head high!