Storytelling Workshop

Thanks to Ujwala for giving us a window onto The Forum's recent Storytelling workshop.  Sounds like a really fun day!  Did you participate?  Please post a comment about your own experience. 

The 26th of October was the day of tall tales at Café Nova as part of our Cultural Friday festivities.  There was a buzz in the air and lots of laughter to come as we occupied a cosy niche and spoke about Storytelling and how it is important to all of us over tea and sandwiches. 

We also had two activities to get the creative juices flowing.  Participants were encouraged to draw inspiration from commonplace words like sing, dance, river etc. to tell a story.  Stories ranged from made-up fantasies which caused much mirth, to nostalgic reminiscences and folktales from distant lands. 

The other activity we had was to ‘make a story out of nothing’ where the participants drew something and each of the others added their interpretations or additions to the story.  This led to many interesting and sometimes very funny ideas.  A pizzeria was brought to life complete with impatient customers, a fiery oven and a cheeky mouse.  The yellow line in Birmingham train station reminded us to ‘Mind the Gap’. 

Finally we spoke about how storytelling can be useful in our everyday lives.  We discussed its entertainment value, storytelling in advertisements, and using it as a tool to share our personal stories.  We were all very sad to stop! 

Odi's Story - Life After Detention

This is the fourth instalment of Odi's courageous story of his political imprisonment in Iran, his difficult voyage to London, and his struggle towards asylum and a new life for himself and his family in the UK.  This very personal account is representative of the horrors and challenges faced by so many asylum seekers around the world. 

When I was released from detention, I didn’t know what to do or where I could go and was shy to ask anybody for help.  But I called a friend and he said not to move, that another friend would come to Heathrow to pick me up.  After two hours he came and brought me to my friend’s house, where I still have accommodation.  

I was very lucky because this guy came and helped me.  I know lots of failed asylum seekers are living on the streets and under bridges.  A lot of horrible things come to them because they don’t have a chance like me to have a friend give them accommodation.  I feel for them completely because I was homeless.  I ate beans from a tin.  I got in fights with other guys on the street over my sleeping area and lots of things.  

But even though I had accommodation, I still had a lot of problems because when you are a failed asylum seeker you don’t have the right to do anything here.  Because I didn’t have an address, I couldn’t get a library card to borrow any books or use the Internet.  And I couldn’t register with a GP.  For over five months, I tried to register with a GP.  Finally, when my friend saw the difficulty I was having, he decided to let me use his address.  People are often afraid to do this because they worry they could get into trouble for helping someone with accommodation, but in reality the Home Office is happy to have an address to arrest and deport you any time they want.  After that, the Refugee Council wrote a letter for me with my friend’s address, and with that letter I was finally able to register in my local GP’s office. 

Another problem was not being able to work.  I needed to buy food and clothes for myself to survive, but I didn’t have a work permit from the Home Office.  My church helped me, and I got some food and second-hand clothes from the Red Cross.  But I would like to ask UKBA how failed asylum seekers are supposed to survive.  Do they not think about how to sort out this matter?  Are they always just thinking about deportation and how to reduce the number of migrants to this country?  I’m sorry for their human rights.  Their human rights are not being looked after at all.