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“We all have a duty and responsibility to make a positive difference in the world” says Amal Azzudin
Amal Azzudin and members of the Sawti Project taken at the opening of their exhibition
Amal Azzudin is a campaigner for human rights and social justice in Scotland. She is a Somali-born Scottish refugee and activist who co-founded the Glasgow Girls a group of seven young women who campaigned against the harsh treatment of asylum-seekers in response to the detention of one of their friends. The Glasgow Girls story has since been turned into two BBC documentaries, a stage musical and a television musical drama. The stage musical toured again this year.
In 2016 Amal was named by both the Young Women’s Movement and the Saltire Society as one of the Outstanding Women of Scotland and in 2018 she won the University of Glasgow’s World Changing Alumni award. Amal is also an Ambassador for the Scottish Refugee Council.
Since leaving University, Amal has worked for the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland as Equality and Human Rights Officer responsible for the development of the Foundation’s work with asylum seekers and refugees. She leads on the Foundation’s Sawti project. Amal continues to campaign and speak out and we were delighted to catch her in Glasgow a few weeks ago.
Transcript
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K: I’m here with Amal Azzudin who is a campaigner for human rights and Social Justice and she currently works for the Mental Health Foundation. Amal welcome and thanks so much for agreeing to his podcast. The usual question Amal, what’s on your mind?
A: What’s on your my mind? Ok just before you arrived today I was running a group with asylum seekers and refugee women. Basically, they are part of a mentoring scheme that I am running here at the (Mental Health) Foundation and the idea is to get them mentored by professionals. But also it is meant to be two-fold. It’s not just refugees learning from professionals but professionals also learning from refugees. It is about the human story and it’s about building that human connection and actually identifying what we have in common rather than our differences where we were born and so on.
And as we know a lot of refugees have professional backgrounds. You know. Just around the table, we had someone who was a diplomat who worked for the Yemeni embassy. We have someone who’s got a PhD. We’ve got someone who has a background in Healthcare. So people have amazing professional backgrounds but unfortunately because they’re not allowed to work. They’re not able to use that. So the mentoring scheme is hopefully something that people can use and learn from productively until they get that piece of paper whenever that happens.
K: And when will the mentoring scheme start?
A: It has already started. It started last year. We’ve got four people who have already been mentored. We’ve got someone from an architecture background, someone who was mentored by Skyscanner so it’s a kind of IT business, and because the man is from Nigeria he’s got like a masters in IT and business but he’s not allowed to work so he’s sitting at home doing nothing. And then somebody wanted to be mentored by a politician and somebody wanted to be mentored around health and improvement and so on. So yeah.
But we’ve got a new group now so we’re looking for mentors
K: Ok so an outcome of this might be a request for Mentors
A: Yes
K: Excellent, we will repeat that at the end. You’ve been campaigning for human rights since you were 15 years old can you remind us of the stimulus for that?
A: In 2005 I was at Drumchapel High School and one of my school friends Agnesa, a Roma gipsy from Kosovo was dawn-raided and detained. So basically on a Sunday morning fourteen home office officials handcuffed Agnesa’s father, separated to the family into two vans and they drove them to a detention centre in England called Yarls Wood and locked them up like criminals ...
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By Refugee Voices ScotlandAmal Azzudin and members of the Sawti Project taken at the opening of their exhibition
Amal Azzudin is a campaigner for human rights and social justice in Scotland. She is a Somali-born Scottish refugee and activist who co-founded the Glasgow Girls a group of seven young women who campaigned against the harsh treatment of asylum-seekers in response to the detention of one of their friends. The Glasgow Girls story has since been turned into two BBC documentaries, a stage musical and a television musical drama. The stage musical toured again this year.
In 2016 Amal was named by both the Young Women’s Movement and the Saltire Society as one of the Outstanding Women of Scotland and in 2018 she won the University of Glasgow’s World Changing Alumni award. Amal is also an Ambassador for the Scottish Refugee Council.
Since leaving University, Amal has worked for the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland as Equality and Human Rights Officer responsible for the development of the Foundation’s work with asylum seekers and refugees. She leads on the Foundation’s Sawti project. Amal continues to campaign and speak out and we were delighted to catch her in Glasgow a few weeks ago.
Transcript
-0-
K: I’m here with Amal Azzudin who is a campaigner for human rights and Social Justice and she currently works for the Mental Health Foundation. Amal welcome and thanks so much for agreeing to his podcast. The usual question Amal, what’s on your mind?
A: What’s on your my mind? Ok just before you arrived today I was running a group with asylum seekers and refugee women. Basically, they are part of a mentoring scheme that I am running here at the (Mental Health) Foundation and the idea is to get them mentored by professionals. But also it is meant to be two-fold. It’s not just refugees learning from professionals but professionals also learning from refugees. It is about the human story and it’s about building that human connection and actually identifying what we have in common rather than our differences where we were born and so on.
And as we know a lot of refugees have professional backgrounds. You know. Just around the table, we had someone who was a diplomat who worked for the Yemeni embassy. We have someone who’s got a PhD. We’ve got someone who has a background in Healthcare. So people have amazing professional backgrounds but unfortunately because they’re not allowed to work. They’re not able to use that. So the mentoring scheme is hopefully something that people can use and learn from productively until they get that piece of paper whenever that happens.
K: And when will the mentoring scheme start?
A: It has already started. It started last year. We’ve got four people who have already been mentored. We’ve got someone from an architecture background, someone who was mentored by Skyscanner so it’s a kind of IT business, and because the man is from Nigeria he’s got like a masters in IT and business but he’s not allowed to work so he’s sitting at home doing nothing. And then somebody wanted to be mentored by a politician and somebody wanted to be mentored around health and improvement and so on. So yeah.
But we’ve got a new group now so we’re looking for mentors
K: Ok so an outcome of this might be a request for Mentors
A: Yes
K: Excellent, we will repeat that at the end. You’ve been campaigning for human rights since you were 15 years old can you remind us of the stimulus for that?
A: In 2005 I was at Drumchapel High School and one of my school friends Agnesa, a Roma gipsy from Kosovo was dawn-raided and detained. So basically on a Sunday morning fourteen home office officials handcuffed Agnesa’s father, separated to the family into two vans and they drove them to a detention centre in England called Yarls Wood and locked them up like criminals ...