Aissata Interviews Francesca About New Beginnings Mentoring

I don't often write on the MRCF blog; therefore, I would like to introduce myself again. My name is Aissata and I am currently studying at St. Mary's University College in Twickenham. Please forgive my English; I am still learning this language.

First of all, I would like to mention how important MRCF has been in my life for the past two years. I found MRCF thanks to a housemate who showed me this place, and MRCF helped me in many ways. At first, I would come for their voucher exchange scheme. It was only this way that I was able to have cash from time to time, and that helped me in getting items that I usually can’t find at Tesco or Sainsbury’s. And then, I would come for the visits to the theatre, the cinema,  the afternoon picnics, or the workshops.

Even though I am not able to attend some of these events at the moment, I remember that they were really important to me. For example: the creative writing workshop with writer Shazea Quraishi, and the theatre with Maja.  Besides, I found the opportunity of meeting new people in the same situation as I am. I found comfort at MRCF.

I also participated in the mentoring project and was delighted to meet Morven, my mentor, a very kind lady whom I still talk to from time to time. In an interview given in September 2011, Francesca offered us more information about the different activities available here. 

A: Today we are in the company of Francesca who is the volunteer coordinator at MRCF. Francesca, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself and your role at MRCF?

F: I started working at MRCF in 2008, and I’m a qualified social worker, but I work here as a volunteer coordinator and I run a mentoring project for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. We’ve been lucky and we’ve now got some new funding that will go for the next three years, and so we are also supporting people to move on from the mentoring to more self-advocacy to be able to speak up for themselves a little bit more.

A: You talked about the mentoring project. Could you please tell us what it consists of?

F: The mentoring project is a project that supports anyone who would like to be helped emotionally, who would like to meet friends or someone who could actually listen to them on a weekly basis for at least six months. Every migrant, refugee or asylum seeker who would want to be supported can come to MRCF and self-register and we will match them with a mentor, a volunteer who would have a couple of hours every week to meet up with them. A lot of the referrals come through counseling services or mental health services to better support their clients, but people can self-refer themselves.

Calling All Writers and Want-to-be Writers!

English PEN and Arvon join together to give you a chance to win a place on an Arvon creative writing week! 

For this year’s Arvon brochure competition, English PEN has teamed up with the UK’s leading creative writing charity to run a competition called Made-Up Words.

We’re giving you the chance to win a full place on an Arvon course at one of the three English Arvon centres, plus travel to the Arvon house (the equivalent of a second class train ticket within the UK). Arvon run an exciting and broad range of courses for writers at all stages.

How To Enter

International Students: 10 Points About Migration and Study

Home away from home is honoured to publish this poignant booklet produced through the collaborative efforts of talented duo Aabdeen Arbab (author) and Grace Needleman (illustrator).

New Beginnings' Activities Are Back!

Thanks to Laura, New Beginnings Mentoring's lovely new intern, for outlining some of the exciting activities on tap for the first part of 2013. 

The new year has begun and so have our activities! Every new year is full of resolutions and good intentions; let’s try to make them true by joining the activities The Forum organizes. There are many courses you can choose from - it just depends on your needs, passions and how much you want to be involved in our big family. Activities are organized for you to gather together, share your knowledge, gain new skills, discuss what you are interested in and make new friends...what are you waiting for?!? 

Let’s have an overview of our activities from January to March:

English classes: to express yourself in a foreign language can be difficult but it is the first step towards integration and involvement in your new city. We teach three kinds of classes - for those who need to learn English from scratch (Beginners), for those who have a better command of English and need to improve (Intermediate) and a Conversation class to become more fluent in speaking. 

Odi's Story - Learning to Stay Positive

This is the fifth 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. 

From 2009 till now, all I heard from immigration organisations was that they thought I was a liar and didn’t believe me at all, just because I didn’t tell them I had any signs of tortures on my body.  And this made me very sad because we have lots of kinds of tortures – mental and physical – and I know my tortures will stay with me in my mind to the end of my life.  Sometimes your mind can’t recover or forget, even with the help of doctors and tablets.  But maybe the doctors at Helen Bamber can help me feel less about them, and help with nightmares and flashbacks.

Community Partnership Football Tournament

Thanks to Sandra and Mojan for telling us all about the Community Partnership Football Tournament. Sounds (and looks) like a really fun time!

The players showed up looking charming and delightful in their When Strangers Become Friends t-shirts provided by The Forum (MRCF). They began with a warm up, took some pictures and introduced themselves, which was the best part, said one of our own, Nick, who was also one of the players. Nick also said that they were a bit confused at the start, not knowing how to begin, but finally got it together!

Freezing and windy weather did not prevent us from enjoying ourselves. The Forum and the Department for Transport were the first organisations present to start the football match. After a half hour, the first goal was scored by Ntambwe, one of The Forum’s players, followed by Amine, who scored three goals. However, the other players were also very good and talented. 

When Team London finally arrived, they joined the others for a catch up moment, which led to a friendly and positive atmosphere during the match. The players were playing seriously as if they were in front of cameras and a big audience and gave an impressive performance.

Media Group Wrap Up

Here's a message from Ujwala on behalf of the Media Group!

The Media Group at The Forum met for the penultimate time this year on 4th December, 2012. We did some revising together. The workshop was about editing pictures using Picasa, discussing what is a good photograph and why to perform basic editing, and attempting to reason why the picture was taken. The group picked their favorite pictures, inserted them into a Word document and typed a few lines about the picture and what it meant to them. At the end of the workshop, they also learnt how to attach the document to an e-mail to share. 

As for the insights gained through the workshop, let me share them in the participants' own words:

This picture was taken by Andrei.

I took this picture because I like the name of market. 
Yellow and blue colours are very nice for me as well, 
which is why I used them while editing the picture.

Fareeda tells us about this picture.

This picture was taken by Adel. 
I like this picture because of the building.    

This picture was taken by Mulugeta.

This picture was taken by me and I edited it. 
I like this picture because these two things are quite 
usual in London. Everywhere you can see people having 
a cup of coffee and fiddling with their mobile phones.      

Alain tells us about this picture.

This is the sunset at Portobello by Omid. 
I was not there when the artist took this picture but I can 

guess that it was the sunset at Portobello, not far to 
2 Thorpe Close which is the location of MRCF 

where I attend the IT, maths and English class. 
Through this picture I feel like I was there at that 

wonderful time and I say thanks a lot to Omid who 
makes me live that beautiful time through this picture.

This picture was taken by Geraldine.

This picture was taken by me during our media group class.
I edited it and added a frame.
I think it describes the life of an immigrant.

This picture was taken by Adel.

This is a picture I took. I like this picture because I like this place. 

This picture was taken by Andrei and selected 
by Unisa, who tells us what it means to him. 

I selected this particular picture because I love internet 

technology. It is very unique - the scenery, location and 

the colour, which has to do with communication. It 

also tries to reach the ordinary person throughout the

world. The picture also serves as a bridge between the

western world and the under-developed countries.