This is the sixth 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.
Another way to busy your mind is to volunteer. Last May I was at home, and my friend called and said we had been invited to the ex-detainee conference. I was so happy. We went together, and in that conference I learned about the Forum. I visited some people there, and then I made an appointment for an English class assessment and started researching about the Forum on the Internet.
The Forum helps refugees and asylum seekers and is a voice for them. I know we have lots of organisations to help refugees in this country and London, but for me the Forum is open and has very friendly staff who really work hard to help refugees and asylum seekers push to the front. Some of them can’t communicate for lots of reasons; for example, they come from a different culture and are shy or ashamed or mentally unwell. And the Forum helps them by sending a volunteer to them to make them happier than before. When these people come out from their home with the help of a volunteer from the Forum, you can see they are happy. When you’re going with them to the job centre to sort out some problem, it can make you happy and them happy as well, and then you are proud of yourself and the Forum. And when you are in English class and you see the teachers and how much they are friendly and patient, you are proud of the Forum.
I want to say thank you to this organisation for helping people. I found that they are very positive and really want to help people from the bottom of their hearts. They understand refugees and asylum seekers very well and the day-to-day problems people in this country have. That’s why I’m happy to find this organisation and to work with them as a volunteer and help people like me who are going through something similar. Because I think when I share my story with them, it can help them to compare their situation with mine, and maybe they can take some lessons from my experience. To be honest, sometimes as a mentor, you can learn lots of things from your mentee.
My mentee is a very good guy. He is a very honest man and I like him a lot. He is Muslim and I am Christian, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that I’m with him because I like to be with him. It’s been a little over a month and we see each other one or two times a week. Sometimes we go to the coffee shop and chat together about our cultures. We have a plan to go to a museum in the future. Last time he asked me if I knew how he could find cheap furniture, and I explained to him that we could find it by the Internet. I printed information for him about a cooker, a fridge and a sofa, and he was really happy and I was too, and he asked me to start teaching him about IT as well. I’m happy with that because I was a teacher in my country and I think that’s what I do best.
The best thing for mentees here is to learn about IT because I think some refugees come from countries which have limitations in using the Internet like Iran and other Middle East and Asian countries. In Iran Internet speed is very slow, and people can’t open lots of websites because the government puts on a very strong filter system. The government even controls email and telephone conversations, and Iranian people have to be careful when they want to send email in or out of Iran. But here in this country, you can use the Internet with high speed and without any filter, and in Europe many things are done by Internet. That’s why I think people should learn IT and how to use the Internet because at this time it’s like food.
As a mentor, you must be very honest and patient, and you must be “there” for your mentee. You can do lots of things with your mentee to help them push to the front and do things for themselves and to make communication easy. And you are just with them like a friend whenever they need you. This is my job at the Forum, and that’s why I’m very happy and lucky and proud, as well, to be a volunteer here.
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