On 22nd Sept St Margaret’s Parish Centre was a buzz of chatter as 65 people (refugees and local Horsforth residents) enjoyed getting to know each other over international food.
Four men seeking asylum hailing from Namibia, Sudan, and Yemen put together their traditional dishes for the guests to savour the taste of their homeland, including – Lamb soup, Aubergine salad, Namibian beef soup, Moroccan roast vegetables, breads and Couscous rice. Sri Lankan Dal was a vegan option cooked by Ian Kemp, volunteer on the Horsforth Town of Sanctuary committee.
Mohammed Almuhandes who hails from Yemen migrated to the United Kingdom from Malta a couple of months ago; father of six children, he had to make the decision not to head back home owing to the dire consequences he was likely to face due to some of his decisions he took as the head of the Emergency and Marine Pollution department in Yemen.
“I had reported against many powerful people and my friends reminded me of the repercussions of returning,” said the 53-year-old who was extremely anxious when he arrived at Leeds.
He credits the Horsforth Town of Sanctuary for building up his confidence and making him feel included through their sessions.
Despite his qualifications and an experience of nearly two and a half decades in the field of Marine Pollution, he is left with no choice but to stay at the hotel and wait for the documents.
Talking about the traditional Lamb Soup he had cooked for the evening, he smiled and expressed how glad he was to be able to cook food from his country in a kitchen for once, as they they have no facilities for this at the hotel they are housed in. This soup even turned out to be the best dish of the night for 15-year-old guest, Daphne. Appreciating the event, she added, “Sharing a meal is certainly the best way to bring everyone together.”
After the food everyone listened to short talks from 3 people from different countries, who had been doing a 5 week course on ‘Finding your Voice’ with Rose McCarthy, enabling them to build confidence in public speaking in English. Nelson from Africa explained the multiple mental health issues refugees face owing to the trauma they have been through, isolation from the community, not being allowed to work and having very limited money and resources.
Alona from Ukraine who has been hosted by a local family shared interesting facts about her country using the colours of a rainbow.
At the end of the evening, guest Joanne Kemp remarked, “It’s a human story behind the name asylum.”
As the name suggested, it indeed was ‘The Great Get together’ and it ended with people getting up to dance around the room to some traditional music!
With thanks to Laveena Francis for writing this article.