‘Thank you for coming in yesterday. The children really enjoyed your session and we’ve raised lots of awareness and money for Care4Calais which is wonderful.’ Rhona Sykens, Year 5 teacher, 23 June 2023 For the past two years, the children and parents at St Christopher’s Prep School have collected donations for Refugee Week and spent …
Refugee Week visit to St Christopher’s Prep School, Hove Read More »
In Refugee Week in June 2022, St Christopher’s School in Hove was holding a donator day. The children brought donations for Care4Calais, and were going to make up bags of essentials for refugees stuck in Calais. To provide some context, Lily Smart from St Christopher’s School in Hove invited me to speak to the children …
Lamar’s story – a refugee tale for young children Read More »
Here’s a report I wrote as part of the Hopeful Solidarities research project Cath’s report_v4
Migrant English Project (MEP) is run by volunteers. It is a safe space where refugees and migrants can learn English. A short report for MEP by Cath Senker, Amy Clarke and Ben Rogaly[1] All names have been changed. 1 What is MEP? Migrant English Project (MEP) is a place to learn, find support and make …
When I was young, I quizzed my granny Bea Senker about her childhood in the East End. An enthusiastic socialist, I hoped to hear heroic stories of my forefathers joining the mass protests to stop Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936. Servants Instead, granny told me that her parents …
Charles Henry Goff: from Baltimore to the East End Read More »
I’ve recently discovered that some of my forefathers came from the shtetl of Sadowne, in Poland. A great-great aunt, Sarah Appelbaum, was apparently a midwife and teacher in Sadowne, helping to maintain the health and morals of the community. Jewish shtetl society was hierarchical. At the peak were a few wealthy estate managers and successful …
Relieved to finally reach sanctuary in a safe country, Ali arrived in a south-coast town at the end of 2019. Moving into a new home, he hoped to start learning English and rebuilding his life. Within three months, the UK was in lockdown, and all classes shut their doors. Life was on hold for Ali …
As the Care4Calais volunteers set up to distribute jumpers to refugees in northern France, R comes over to say hi. It’s lovely to see the likeable 23-year-old Kurdish man again after 3 months. ‘Mama!’ he calls – a joke from last time when he found out I was volunteering alongside my daughter. He’s exactly the …
Just metres away from a roundabout in Calais, a bunch of boys are playing an ad hoc cricket game. Another group warm themselves by a small wood fire – later, they’ll cook a meal on their makeshift stove. Eyeing them from the other side of the roundabout are a vanload of CRS police officers. CRS …