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| An asylum party, jungle-bashing and sloe gin | An asylum party, jungle-bashing and sloe gin |
| (5 months later) | |
| Early this month saw the tenth birthday of Leeds Asylum Seekers' Support Network (LASSN) and they have got a new website to celebrate. Before enjoying that, though, we had the annual general meeting – the boring bit but necessary for legal reasons. | Early this month saw the tenth birthday of Leeds Asylum Seekers' Support Network (LASSN) and they have got a new website to celebrate. Before enjoying that, though, we had the annual general meeting – the boring bit but necessary for legal reasons. |
| I am so glad that all this is now behind me; I did over 20 years of committee meetings: council, school governors, charities. I'm glad that I did, as I like to think that some of them made a difference, but enough is enough and I am now very happy to be a volunteer and nothing more. | I am so glad that all this is now behind me; I did over 20 years of committee meetings: council, school governors, charities. I'm glad that I did, as I like to think that some of them made a difference, but enough is enough and I am now very happy to be a volunteer and nothing more. |
| We heard from someone who had been in at the very beginning of LASSN, over ten years ago, before the charity itself was officially launched. She made the point that we all hope not to be here in another ten years' time, but we fear that the need will be just as great then as it is now. Conflict around the world does not lessen just because the European Union has won the Nobel peace prize. Then came the party: lovely food cooked by a local couple who were born in East Africa and have lived in Leeds for many decades. It was good to share experiences, both happy and sad, with other volunteers. Some were Short Stop hosts, some English-at-home tutors and others befrienders. We also talked of other things: holidays (I had just returned from another train trip across Europe, this time to Porto), and dogs (other people's, I don't have one as regular readers may have guessed). Earlier in the day I had visited my asylum-seeking friend, still waiting to hear when and to where she will be moved. No news may be good news, but can also be very stressful and for her at present it is the latter. | We heard from someone who had been in at the very beginning of LASSN, over ten years ago, before the charity itself was officially launched. She made the point that we all hope not to be here in another ten years' time, but we fear that the need will be just as great then as it is now. Conflict around the world does not lessen just because the European Union has won the Nobel peace prize. Then came the party: lovely food cooked by a local couple who were born in East Africa and have lived in Leeds for many decades. It was good to share experiences, both happy and sad, with other volunteers. Some were Short Stop hosts, some English-at-home tutors and others befrienders. We also talked of other things: holidays (I had just returned from another train trip across Europe, this time to Porto), and dogs (other people's, I don't have one as regular readers may have guessed). Earlier in the day I had visited my asylum-seeking friend, still waiting to hear when and to where she will be moved. No news may be good news, but can also be very stressful and for her at present it is the latter. |
| A friend from WAST, Women Asylum Seekers Together, was there. We reminisced about a lovely holiday they had all had in the Lakes, in a guest house owned by the local Society of Friends. Everything had been paid for by the Friends, including a boat trip on Derwentwater. By coincidence I had stayed there as a paying guest whilst I was doing the Coast to Coast walk two years ago. I remembered the food being very good and they agreed with me. It was lovely to relax and talk about ordinary things, far removed from current strain and stress. | A friend from WAST, Women Asylum Seekers Together, was there. We reminisced about a lovely holiday they had all had in the Lakes, in a guest house owned by the local Society of Friends. Everything had been paid for by the Friends, including a boat trip on Derwentwater. By coincidence I had stayed there as a paying guest whilst I was doing the Coast to Coast walk two years ago. I remembered the food being very good and they agreed with me. It was lovely to relax and talk about ordinary things, far removed from current strain and stress. |
| The following week, I was on duty with what used to be Short Stop and is now called the Grace Project, an amalgamation of two linked schemes, Short Stop and Long Stop, both offering emergency accommodation for homeless asylum seekers, one for one night only, the other for longer. LASSN has decided to merge them and to use the name Grace in honour of an early user of short Stop many years ago. | The following week, I was on duty with what used to be Short Stop and is now called the Grace Project, an amalgamation of two linked schemes, Short Stop and Long Stop, both offering emergency accommodation for homeless asylum seekers, one for one night only, the other for longer. LASSN has decided to merge them and to use the name Grace in honour of an early user of short Stop many years ago. |
| Now settled in Leeds, she has become a trustee of LASSN and an enthusiastic advocate of both short Stop and Long Stop. | Now settled in Leeds, she has become a trustee of LASSN and an enthusiastic advocate of both short Stop and Long Stop. |
| Just one person to be placed this week. My first call is to one of our regular hosts who is unwell but tells me that if I can find nobody else she can help. She has anawful cough and cold, like the one I have just got over, so it's a relief that my next call is answered with a cheery "Of course." I phone the referring agency Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers back and that is all for the day. The nights are becoming colder and longer so the Grace project becomes more and more vital. | Just one person to be placed this week. My first call is to one of our regular hosts who is unwell but tells me that if I can find nobody else she can help. She has anawful cough and cold, like the one I have just got over, so it's a relief that my next call is answered with a cheery "Of course." I phone the referring agency Positive Action For Refugees and Asylum Seekers back and that is all for the day. The nights are becoming colder and longer so the Grace project becomes more and more vital. |
| The next day dawned in gloom and pouring rain but the forecast promised sun later, so it was on with the waterproofs and off to Runswick Bay. We Coasties volunteers were continuing to carve a path, which only seems to exist on the map, through bracken, bramble and our old friend, blackthorn. It had been started with cutting steps many months ago and more steps will be needed on this stretch, but today it is too wet. However by 11am the rain has stopped and an hour later, the sun and the midges are out. | The next day dawned in gloom and pouring rain but the forecast promised sun later, so it was on with the waterproofs and off to Runswick Bay. We Coasties volunteers were continuing to carve a path, which only seems to exist on the map, through bracken, bramble and our old friend, blackthorn. It had been started with cutting steps many months ago and more steps will be needed on this stretch, but today it is too wet. However by 11am the rain has stopped and an hour later, the sun and the midges are out. |
| Some of my colleagues become so enthusiastic that the path gets wider and wider and more and more blackthorn has to be somehow 'lost' in what remains. I have a minor rebellion and block their way so they they move onward and upward – more blackthorn to be lost, but at least the path gets longer rather than wider. | Some of my colleagues become so enthusiastic that the path gets wider and wider and more and more blackthorn has to be somehow 'lost' in what remains. I have a minor rebellion and block their way so they they move onward and upward – more blackthorn to be lost, but at least the path gets longer rather than wider. |
| "What is the point of blackthorn?" one of us wonders. "Sloe gin," I suggest, and we all agree: very good, if not exactly an essential for life. | "What is the point of blackthorn?" one of us wonders. "Sloe gin," I suggest, and we all agree: very good, if not exactly an essential for life. |
| Now, see here: a lovely path, almost parallel to the one which we are cutting, dragging and throwing. But it is on private land, this area of the National Park is not Open Access and we ordinary mortals may only walk on the public rights of way. It's a path for game shooters. | Now, see here: a lovely path, almost parallel to the one which we are cutting, dragging and throwing. But it is on private land, this area of the National Park is not Open Access and we ordinary mortals may only walk on the public rights of way. It's a path for game shooters. |
| I eat game and so I don't complain about the people who shoot, but the the revolutionary in me wonders why we can't all use the same path. There is some muttering about us plebs being excluded; very topical at the moment, the rights of plebs. When I was younger I thought that one day the revolution would come; now older and greyer I know better. | I eat game and so I don't complain about the people who shoot, but the the revolutionary in me wonders why we can't all use the same path. There is some muttering about us plebs being excluded; very topical at the moment, the rights of plebs. When I was younger I thought that one day the revolution would come; now older and greyer I know better. |
| My last session of jungle cutting this month was an assault on nettles and burdock to unchoke young trees planted last year in Malton's best kept secret, the Castle Gardens. Some trees had been discovered a few months ago, now more were revealed. | My last session of jungle cutting this month was an assault on nettles and burdock to unchoke young trees planted last year in Malton's best kept secret, the Castle Gardens. Some trees had been discovered a few months ago, now more were revealed. |
| If the small society and 'localism' exists anywhere, it truly does here: a few people, over many years, have made the gardens into the magical place they are now. I have come to it only recently and now hope to help more. | If the small society and 'localism' exists anywhere, it truly does here: a few people, over many years, have made the gardens into the magical place they are now. I have come to it only recently and now hope to help more. |
| Last but not least, my good friends at Fairer World shop in York have just launched the first page of their website, it is a work in progress, but after some time here it is. The shop at 84 Gillygate is well worth visiting next time you're in the city. | Last but not least, my good friends at Fairer World shop in York have just launched the first page of their website, it is a work in progress, but after some time here it is. The shop at 84 Gillygate is well worth visiting next time you're in the city. |
| Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who blogs monthly for the Northerner about her voluntary work with asylum seekers and refugees in Lincoln Green, Leeds, and maintaining footpaths on the North York Moors. | Janice Gwilliam is a retired London schoolteacher who blogs monthly for the Northerner about her voluntary work with asylum seekers and refugees in Lincoln Green, Leeds, and maintaining footpaths on the North York Moors. |
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