Hi Friends,

Greetings! And sympathy for all of you bike riders, having seen the weather forecast this week: storms, rain and high winds. Not the weather for umbrellas!

MCoS Bike project started this Monday in partnership with Eve, from Transport for Greater Manchester and Ursula, our Cycle trainer. Sabah, Ngawang, Rowa, Somayeh and Natalie coud be seen zooming round Alexander Park on bikes and negociating cones. 6 others will join them next week for this 6 week course. They are going to do a Sponsored Bike Ride of 10 miles round the whole park, to raise money to buy bike locks and spare parts for the 6 bikes they are doing up. Please sponsor their efforts!

At last Thursday’s Conversation Club we looked at some of the quirky things about learning the English language and taught some English people to say greetings in Swahil, Arabic and Urdu to remind us how much patience is needed! If you’d like to be trained as a Talk English Friend contact Jane.

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday for our Community Meal!

Greetings from Jane, Dianne, Charles, Jila, Anita, Mayam, David, Fay & Jeff

Conversation Club

It’s s a chance for people of the same nationality or who speak the same language to meet and encourage each other and pass on news and advice on surviving in the asylum system.
It’s a chance for local British people to share local knowledge and help them integrate in their new society.

Sunday 31st January 12.30pm-2pm will be our next Conversation Club Community Meal
at Transformation Community Resource Centre, Richmond Grove behind Longsight Police Station.

We’ll be eating together, watching a video, exploring the theme of Hope and maybe even dancing!

NB NEW FEBRUARY DATES:
Conversation Club on Thursday 11th February 6-8pm will be a special one on ‘Hate Crime Awareness’.
at the Transformation Community Resource Centre. (NB It’s 2nd sunday of month)

The February Community Meal will be on Sunday 21st February 12.30pm to join in the 11th Anniversary of Command Prayer Church, who host Manchester City of Sanctuary, again it will be
at Transformation Community Resource Centre, Richmond Rd, Longsight M13 0LN.

5 more weeks for Bike Course for Asylum Seekers
to learn to ride a bike, learn how to maintain a bike and even own a bike!

Here’s some photos of the Women’s session:
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Starting Mondays in January/February
9.30am-11.30am for men
and 12-2pm for women
at Alexander Park M16 7JL
109 Bus from City Centre, get off at Alexander Park, Cross the road. Look for the brick garage in the Car Park.

5 new bikes have been donated for Sanctuary Seekers.
Eve Holt from CTC (National Cycling charity),
with Ursula Harries (Cycling instructor and campaigner)
will partnering with Manchester City of Sanctuary to help provide free transport,
particularly for asylum seekers who have no access to cash and therefore find transport a huge issue.
15 people have already signed up but let Jane know if you want to come too.

If you would like to be part of the planning and organising team for any of the next Conversation Clubs
please see David, Sam or Jane.

There are lots of different roles: organising the food and drink, welcoming new people, creating the activities, planning something for the young children, planning with the young people, sorting out music, doing the travel expenses, creating the noticeboard information, looking after the safety of each event.

There will be a planning meeting on Thursday 4th February. Time to be confirmed

Event organised by Manchester and Salford Universities and the Northern Post Colonial Network
Being creative with POD Collective . jpg

Symposium organised by the Northern Postcolonial Network
for everyone concerned about issues of Asylum, Refuge and Migration
at Media CityUK,
Friday 29th Jan.

The Exhibition that many of our Sanctuary Seekers help create will be on show.

If you would like to attend either all day or just the afternoon local session,
please register with Rena or Jade at [email protected]
by Friday 22nd January.
Lunch is provided and travel costs for all asylum seekers.

If you are a qualified ESOL teacher and are free on Wednesday afternoons
you may want to consider joining Rita at Revive’s Salford Centre,

on Wednesday afternoons 1-3pm
 at The Spiritan Centre, Northallerton Road, Lower Kersal, M7 3TP
(Bus 92 from Shudehill to Littleton Post Office, 2 minute walk down Northallerton Rd)
This is a good opportunity especially for our sanctuary seekers living in Salford and north Manchester but open to everyone.
When we visited on Wednesday ther were about 30+ young men, mostly from African background.

Sanctuary Seekers: Please text Jane on 07851842930 (on Manchester City of Sanctuary phone) if you are interested or email[email protected]

Other ESOL opportunities include

• Every Wednesday 10-11.30pm Drop-In ESOL Conversation Class at Levenshulme Inspire, M19 3AR  (0161 850 5717  )

• Every Thursday 10-12noon ESOL Class at Victoria Park Fellowship M14 5GP    email: [email protected]

• Every Tuesday & Thursday : St Brides Church, 3 Blair Street, Old Trafford. M16 9AZ  0161 226 3047

• The Oasis Centre, Collier House,Gorton, M18 8TX     07732 352 568

• Alexandria Library : 247 Wilmslow Rd, (Phone for venue: 703 746 1751) Tuesday and Thursday 10-12, Beginners Monday & Friday 1-3pm, Lower Intermediate Modays 1-2, Intermediate 3-4pm Cornerstone church, Eccles
• St Hilda’s Church, Warwick Rd South, Firswood, M16 0JE        0161 865 1802

Visits to Royal Exchange Theatre

We have tickets for each play at the Royal Exchange this year,
thanks to Tracie and Catherine from the Communities Programme.

If you know of a refugee or sanctuary seeker who would benefit from this opportunity
please put them in contact with Jane or Jila.

Jane & Jila will be going to the Community Exchange Event on Jan 27th 6-7pm
to preview the shows for this next 6 months and to speak about MCoS’s involvement in the Mark Storrer Project.

Shopping Buddy Scheme

During Dec/January we have been pilotting a new Shopping Buddy Scheme
to pair up local people, who shop in the major supermarkets, with Asylum Seekers who have Section 4 support from the Home Office of £35.28 electronically on an Azure Card and so therefore have no access to cash.
It is very difficult to live cashless, especially with children.
It is easier to make such a small sum go further if you can use cash to shop in charity shops, markets, cheap supermarkets and buy a bus ticket.
So far 4 people have successfully shopped together with a Sanctuary Seeker to exchange their shopping for cash.
Lovely friendships are emerging and each person has been touched and challenged by the experience.

If you would like to be a Shopping Buddy please email[email protected]

Foodbank

Thankfully our Asylum Seekers have access to a local Foodbank when the last of their luck runs out.

We are so grateful to Sylvia, Paul, Jean and the other volunteers from Victoria Park Fellowship for the work they do two afternoons every week and to Abigail Spooner and other volunteers at Avila House.

Foodbank is available :

Monday 1-3pm & Thursday 2-4pm
at Transformation Community Resource Centre M13 0LN

Tuesday, Wed, Friday
at Avila House on Oxford Road,
next to the Catholic Chaplaincy
335-7 Oxford Rd M13 9PG

If you would like to donate to the FoodBank these are the items that are needed:
Dried/tinned/packets of:
Rice, oil, pasta,sugar, tea, coffee, UHT milk,
Cereal, soup, beans, pasta sauce, noodles,
tinned vegetables, meat, tuna,
Rice pudding, biscuits, snacks,
Chocolate, jam, ketchup,
Boxed juice

There are many ways of helping refugees and asylum seekers.
If you are have time to volunteer but also if you are working.

Are you a Teacher, T.A. or Headteacher?

Manchester City of Sanctuary helps schools to raise awareness of the needs of sanctuary seekers amongst the children.
Children understand justice and they understand friendship.
They can be great frineds to families who are new to this country, who have been forced to flee their homeland.
If you are a teacher, T.A. or headteacher and want to ensure your school community knows how to make them welcome
then please check out our Schools of Sanctuary page on our website :
www . cityofsanctuary . org/schoolsofsanctuary
or see the video attached to this bulletin.
Your school could be awarded “School of Sanctuary” status.
if you are interested in more information for Manchester schools please send Jane or Fay your contact details.

Are you a Midwife or a Health Visitor?
Would you like to understand better the needs of refugee and asylum seeker women?
We will be organising an initial meeting with people in maternity services next month.
If you are interested in more information please send Jane your details asap.
or check out the City of Sanctuary websitewww . maternity . cityofsanctuary . org
Your Maternity Services supported by health befrienders who themselves are from a refugee background. You could be jointhe Maternity Stream of City of Sanctuary, a network of volunteers and organisations supporting sanctuary seekers in ante-natal, neo-natal and postnatal services to prevent unnecessary suffering.

Volunteering Opportunities:

Asylum Seekers are not allowed to be employed and may wait in limbo for many years;
but we all need the opportunity to contribute,
so there are lots of opportunities to volunteer and get involved, for local supporters and sanctuary seekers:

Samya, Darius and Rowa will start their training with Levenshulme Inspired People’s Project on Thursday.

If you would like to Volunteer with Manchester City of Sanctuary
we will be offering 3 training sessions in February TBC.
Please let Jane or Jeff know if you would be interested.

Opportunities include:

Creating events eg Conversation Clubs
helping develop a Thursday drop-In,
IT support, PR and newsletter support,
Social Media communication,
Shopping Buddy,
English conversation and IT support with sanctuary seekers,
collecting new ‘pledges’ from organisations and businesses,
supporting new refugees as they set up home from scratch.

Vision Day 

On Saturday 6th February, the Steering Group, who are responsible for the development of Manchester City of Sanctuary, will be spending the day together to review and plan and dream, with the help of a facilitator from the national City of Sanctuary movement.

If you have any thoughts, comments or contributions you would like to make to the future development of Manchester’s response to sanctuary seekers please email Charles, David or Anita  ([email protected]).

“The objective of the City of Sanctuary movement is to create a culture of welcome and hospitality for those seeking Sanctuary, Refugees and other vulnerable migrants amongst us” – Inderjit Bhogal, founder of City of Sanctuary