Celebrating a Great Year of Activities!

Thanks to Niresha for sharing with us highlights of the June 22 end-of-the-year party.

On Saturday 22^nd June, MRCF held a party to celebrate our mentor and mentees’ achievements throughout the year. It was a great day filled with fun, food and laughter and great live performances from our music group. We awarded certificates to our mentors and mentees to recognise the great time and efforts they put into various activities throughout the year.

We had a really good turn out at the event with lots of MRCF faces turning up and enjoying the fun. It’s a shame that the weather wasn’t particularly great that day and we had to move our picnic indoors, but either way we made the best of the day and had a lot of fun.

The party marked the end of a great year of activities and wrapped them up in time for the summer break. We look forward to starting the activities again this September, such as music, maths and English classes, and sewing classes soon. Throughout the party, pictures were projected of some of the products our members had created, such as beautiful sequin dresses made in the sewing classes.

The musical entertainment went down a treat and brought big smiles and joy to everyone. It got everyone involved and singing along, and we also got to see some of our members’ dancing moves!

The whole event was a great catch up with friends at MRCF and was really enjoyable. After a nice summer break, we are looking forward to recommencing our activities and seeing the talents of our members unfold.

The Richness of the Mentoring Experience

Thank you to Hayley for sharing her impressions of the mentoring project as she begins to delve into her research. 

I have been volunteering at The Forum for 3 weeks now, so have met many a cheerful mentor while sitting in the office. However, a week ago I started interviewing mentors for a research project I am doing at the University of Edinburgh. I have been asking questions about how the mentors first got involved with the project, the experiences they have had throughout the process, and why they think the project is important.

My main finding… Wow, what a lovely bunch of people! Every interview made me more and more inspired to become a mentor and join the team myself. Everyone was so enthusiastic about the project and its achievements. 

What really struck me in the interviews was how this project provides so much more than practical support to the mentees. This is clearly a vital aspect of the partnership, but stories of blossoming friendships, adventures around London, and a wide range of knowledge and experience gained by both mentees and mentors really showed the potential of mentoring relationships. The fact that the friendships made through the mentor system often continue beyond the 6 months of weekly meetings really shows how engaged both mentees and mentors are with the project.

The mentors each have their own unique experiences and knowledge which they are encouraged to contribute - be it knowledge as a solicitor or counsellor, or a love for history and exploring museums. I believe it is the combination of this passion and patience that makes the mentoring system so dynamic and successful. One mentor explained how rewarding it was to see her mentee grow in confidence over the 6 months: “When I hear those words [of thanks] from the people I am supporting and mentoring, that is not pleasure; it is something absolutely deeper - gratification - and goes to the heart.”- Vittoria

I would like to say a HUGE "thank you" to the mentors who have participated in my research: Ruth, Gemma, Vittoria and Alec (and possibly more in the future!). I really loved meeting you and have learnt so much from you all!

A Party To Celebrate Three Years Together

Thanks to Laura for these reflections on New Beginnings Mentoring's impressive first three years.

There is always a good reason to celebrate...especially if we talk about our achievements over the last three years! The New Beginnings project turned three years old and we celebrated it on 31st May. Many people gathered at The Forum to enjoy a fun day together with music, food and good memories. In front of an enthusiastic audience, our trained music group performed at Café Nova for the second time, playing a wide range of songs, from the Wizard of Oz soundtrack's “Over the Rainbow," to George Gershwin's “I Got Rhythm,” and The Sound of Music soundtrack's “Edelweiss,” when everybody stood up, chose a partner and started dancing together. The concert masterpiece was Aziza’s solo of “Ego,” a song composed and performed by herself with the choir as back-up. Very catchy and performed with passion, you couldn’t get its rhythm out of your head!

The party then moved to The Forum's office, where we enjoyed a lovely video put together by Milca and Martina on our activities and events over the last year. Interviews and photos followed, and you realized how people have benefitted and enjoyed every class, and how strong their bond is with The Forum and among each other. 

Some of their comments were:

Woolwich: Not In My Name

Thank you to Home Away From Home contributor Jeena for sharing this powerful poem written and performed by her daughter, Zena Agha, in reaction to the Woolwich killing. Please distribute it widely. As Jeena says, "people need to see it and understand" and "we all need to stand together during these times." 

The Circus Comes to The Forum!

Milca writes eloquently about her experience leading the Circus workshop during last week's Cultural Friday.

The circus has always been part of my life. I have practised different circus disciplines in a non-professional way since I was very little and, even if it never took first place in my everyday life, it was always following me. To me, as well as to the people that compose “my world,” the circus is something familiar, or at least known. So, understandably, the circus was the first thing I had in mind when I was told about the possibility of running a workshop for a Cultural Friday at MRCF. The premise was good: I had been working here as an intern for two months, so I already knew most of the participants. In addition, I had the chance to attend another Cultural Friday workshop, a very fascinating one about drawing run by Caspar. At the same time I had doubts: Will it look silly? Will they be bored? How does the activity have to be designed to appeal to people that have probably heard very little about the circus? I was keen to share with them a taste of something that has always been part of my life and filled me with perplexity at the same time.…

All my doubts disappeared from the beginning of the activity. What I am especially pleased about was the participants’ welcoming attitude towards me and the things I was presenting. The group was quite numerous - around fifteen people showed up and this made the atmosphere animated. We started off with a short informative part, during which I showed them some videos of contemporary performances, both by famous circus companies and by lesser-known “underground” artists. Then we developed a discussion arising from the individuals' knowledge, memories and experiences. Step-by-step, a clearer picture came up of circus being traditionally a travelling art, along with the different artists that might be found in a company - from acrobats to clowns, animal trainers, funambulists, and jugglers. 

After that we switched to a more practical activity, namely juggling. We started from the very preliminary step of making the juggling balls out of raw materials, such as flour, balloons, wire, tape, and elastic. It soon turned out to be not too easy to actually make these balls and it required a fair amount of patience from all of us. However, no one gave up! Some of the faster ones could proceed to the second phase and attached a wire to the balls to obtain bolas (sort of chains). Apart from myself - jumping around, passing around scissors and replacing broken balloons - the group was relaxed and curious. At that stage, not everybody was clear we were actually going to use the tools we made, so when I announced it, it sounded almost like a joke: “Do you want me to juggle?!”

A Frenzy of Activity Before the Summer Break

Thanks to Milca for reporting on the winding-down of a fun and fulfilling year of activities at The Forum. 

The mentoring project is more than the mentoring itself; it also includes various activities, from English classes to the knitting workshop, passing through to the sewing and math classes. The activities are open to all current and former mentees, as well as to the people we provide one-to-one and self-advocacy support.

I have been working at The Forum as an intern for more than a month now, and I feel I have a precious opportunity to be part of such an interesting project. I would say that the activities, as much as the mentoring matches, are the results of an encounter between people, knowledge, countries and experiences. On the one hand, there are the “teachers,” who are willing to dedicate their time and knowledge with passion and patience, and at the same time stay open to be taught by their students to challenge any traditional way of teaching and to be creative in their methods. On the other hand, there are individuals with different needs and reasons for being there. While learning something new and acquiring new skills is always the fundamental reason for users to join the activities, I soon realised that there is much more to it than that: it is also about being together in a welcoming environment, sharing time in a meaningful way with people you feel comfortable with, being part of a group, structuring daily life with a routine, and improving the quality of one's life.

In the last weeks I have been going around, popping in class-to-class with a small camera and a few questions in mind, with the purpose of collecting feedback from the activities.  The students from the different classes reacted in different ways: some were shyer and didn’t want to be on the screen; others couldn’t wait to give their comments to the camera! All of them, however, mentioned their satisfaction with the courses.

BBC: Amnesty says refugees face rising dangers

Read the full article here.