Case study: The Dover Detainee Visitor Group continue with core services and it is extending its impact.
We are actively contributing to the Detention Forum in their work on policy making/influencing, for which we wrote a briefing paper for parliamentarians for their meeting this year on issues faced after detention. We have also written a report presented to the Legal Services Commission highlighting the negative aspects of legal representation under exclusive legal firms’ contracts. Examples of our services follow:
A female ex-detainee in London, who had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, telephoned us because she was about to be made homeless by her local authority. We liaised with her community care lawyers to ensure continuity of care / A male had been released from detention without enough heart medication - we referred him to Doctor of the Worlds’ ‘Project: London’, who gave him an emergency prescription and helped him to register with a G.P/ A visitor informed us he suspected his detainee had mental health issues, with the detainee’s permission we referred him to Medical Justice and he was diagnosed with brain damage. He is now released.
An interview for the Basis Project. You can find more interviews and case studies on the Basis Project website.
Transcript
My name is Jane Avery and I work as the grants officer for the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Community Foundation. I started in the job in May 2009 and was really new to the grants giving world, although I had worked in the third sector before.
I quickly realised that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, newly arrived communities and asylum seekers would form a big constituency of people who were applying for grants.
Using existing contacts and making new ones - and one of those was Modupe Odifa, who works at Refugee Action (for the Basis Project) in Leicester – we began to draw up a panel of expertise. Because you can’t know the needs of every individual group. SO we have a wide range of experts on our grants panel to help us make decisions that are fair and transparent – and a lot of those have been successful, and we’re keen on keeping in touch with groups.
We’re developing the work that we do with refugee groups and BME communities by building on a bank of knowledge. Because clearly, if people come to this country and English isn’t their first language, or form-filling or compliance with contracts is new to them then it is important that they get that sort of knowledge base so that there is a level playing field.
One of the things we are doing is running a training day – not just for newly arrived communities, but they are being targeted with the advertising – to get information on how to make their application stronger, pointing out common mistakes. Also we’re hoping to build up a bank of buddies so that people who have made successful applications can help people making new applications. In this way we can strengthen communities and people will be able to help each other.
Clearly there is a big gap between people who put in successful applications and people who put in weak applications. And I can imagine it’s really frustrating to get a letter saying ‘Your application wasn’t successful because…’ and then in thee sentences say ‘It wasn’t value for money’ or ‘There wasn’t a proof of need’ or whatever. And they’re sort of clichés, so it must be very frustrating. So what we wanted to do was put people who have made successful applications with people who haven’t been successful just so thast during the application process they can phone someone up – they can phone me up as well – but someone who can perhaps give some extra time to explain what is meant by a certain phrase. And I think that’s going to be really helpful.
The point is that we do have money and our donors want us to give it away. It’s not our intention to make it difficult. It’s just a question of people being able to find that the Community Foundation is approachable and that there are different ways of approaching us.
The first thing is that we would look for a group that has a constitution and we’ll point organisations in the right direction if they need help with that - we have links with other organisations in the city. And also a bank account, because we can’t pay money into someone’s private account – so they need a bank account with two signatures. So that’s the foundation really of a good group.
And the next things is for them to look at the guidelines for the different funds and apply to the appropriate one – don’t bend your application to try and fit. Be realistic. Sometimes people have a habit of saying, ‘We can apply for up to £5,000 so we’ll go for £5,000’ – they go from the bottom up. And you know that. And it’s applications that have got genuine figures for their costs that ring true to a panel that have got perhaps 20 minutes to assess – although we do have a process of pre-assessment. So, yes, realistic budgets are important and a project that has a purpose and they can demonstrate a need. It’s important not to apply for funds just because they’re there.
Another case study from the Basis Project. You can find more case studies on our website.
Transcript
Mathieu Kapasi
My name is Mathieu Kapasi and I’m the project manager of the Congolese Association of Merseyside. It’s a community organisation that was set up in 2004 and was registered as a company limited by guarantee in 2006.
You will have heard on the news what is going on in Congo – the UK is not the first choice for people coming from Congo because they are French speakers, but there is an opportunity for them to come to the UK and most of them were sent to Merseyside; many in the Kensington area of Liverpool. That is why we set up the organisation and based it here.
We set up the organisation because we found that many of our people from Congo face very hard challenges in UK society because of the language barrier and because their qualifications are not necessarily recognised in the UK. They don’t know where to go and how to solve those problems – that is why in 2004 a group of Congolese set up the organisation
I have not lived here for too long. I have been here for three years only. When I came to the UK the organisation was here but there was nobody to run it and I took on that responsibility to try to help Congolese people when they have immigration issues and show them how to contact mainstream services. That is why we set up the organisation.
Lee Omar
My name’s Lee Omar and I’m the Organisational Development Officer for the Basis Project and I’m based in Liverpool. I’ve been working with the Congolese Association in Merseyside for around two years. When we first met we met in a room above a shop to talk about the aspirations and the aims of the organisation. They quickly let me know that they had a grand vision to help Congolese people integrate into the local Liverpool community. They saw a gap in the sector for someone to provide services and also be a link or a hub to refer Congolese people to the mainstream services.
Mathieu Kapasi
As the organisation grew we noticed that people had another problem – not just the language problem but the skills problem as well. We are from Africa and there is not the same level of using IT as it is here. That is why we wanted to set up a project to help people to get into society by learning some basic skills in English. French, Maths and IT.
In 2008 Lee came to us because many Congolese people had contacted Refugee Action and he wanted to see if he could help us.
Lee Omar
We worked together to develop good governance through training, and to develop robust systems around financial accounting. We looked at project development and developed a fundraising strategy which got rolled out over the next 12 months and saw the organisation move into their first small office. It was a small room about the size of a prison cell but it was on a main road which gave them a bit more visibility. Mathieu volunteered in this small office every day for a year or so. While he was there he built up some really good systems of good practice around managing the project – for example, everyone would sign in and there was excellent monitoring an devaluation. It was best practice for running a project and a community organisation.
They quickly grew out of this small room and moved into the centre we’re in today which is on one of the busiest high streets in the Kensington area. They’ve got the shop front and 12 computers in an IT suite where Mathieu, with his academic background, delivers training where people can get a qualification around IT. There are also English language classes and job skills classes where people can get help with their CVs and practice interviews. They’ve also helped people access placements – there have been quite a few people who have been through this centre and have now got full-time, contracted proper jobs.
I think this is the Congolese Community’s greatest legacy to this community. We’re in an area of high unemployment Jobs are scarce. And I’ve seen people who came to this centre 18 months ago speaking very little English and feeling very isolated get support from the organisation. It’s hand-holding at first – taking them to the Home Office to go through the legal requirements for a refugee. Then they start learning new skills and eventually the organisation helps them to be ‘employer-ready.’
That’s true integration, I think. Someone who has a job and can speak to their neighbour and colleagues.
It’s a great thing that they’re doing down here.
Mathieu Kapasi
When we set up the organisation we didn’t think it would grow so quickly. We started with Congolese but now we work with many, many other communities. We try to accommodate everyone to help them solve their problems.
To give them advice, information and skills is not enough. The target for everyone is to find a job and our challenge is to link the organisation with the job development market to help find jobs for people.
For the organisation itself our aim is to move from a community organisation to a social enterprise. This is the way we are looking for the growth of the organisation.
Established in 1991, Refugee and Migrant Network Sutton has recently been named as a strategic partner by Sutton Council. They began working with the Basis Project in 2009.
Transcript
Anne Towner, Chair: Refugee Network Sutton (as it was then called) started in 1991 and at that time there were quite a lot of people newly arrived who needed basic support - they were moving into accommodation but didn’t have furniture and didn’t have food.
The organisation was set up by few people who gave welcome parcels and got things to give people. And it gradually became more organised and more professional.
It’s different now. We don’t get so many newly-arrived refugees and asylum-seekers. We get a lot of people coming to join relatives who are already here and we do get some people who are economic migrants.
What we currently do is advise about immigration, local authority benefits and how to make the most of living in this society – how to get good health care, how to get education, and what the possibilities are. It’s more about helping people to make the best of their lives here rather than rescuing them from dire emergencies.
Although, having said that, there are a few people who are still destitute and we need to help. But most of our clients want advice, English lessons – they’re very passionate about their English lessons, which are free and we provide a crèche for; which the local authority no longer does. So we feel we have a real service to offer to, for instance, mothers who are newly arrived and have no English and want to support their children in school.
Bihnam Agzeer, volunteer: I am from Iraq. My home city is Mosul – that is a new name, the old name is Ninaweh which is a very ancient name. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire and I lived there all my life.
I used to be a headmaster in a Catholic primary school in my home country. I am a calligrapher. That’s my hobby – I studied it at Mosul university.
I started working here in this group as a volunteer about four years ago. I do it because I need to help people,
Anne Towner: Today is our Annual General Meeting. Before the meeting we’re running our English classes, but in a somewhat different format, doing fun activities – some people are making Christmas cards, some are playing games and the ones with young children are going to do an activity with them.
At 11.15 we’ll gather everybody together and we’ll have our Annual General Meeting. We try to make this short and sweet and understandable by our clients because we like them to be there. It’s also very important for our funders to be there and for us to showcase what we’re doing.
Councillor Ruth Dombey: I’m the Deputy Leader of the Council and I’m also the lead member for equality and diversity in the voluntary sector. I do think it’s a recognition of how important we think the voluntary sector is that it’s the Deputy Leader who is leading on this.
I first met the Refugee Network, as it was then, three years ago when they invited me to their AGM and I realised that we had a real jewel amongst us. It's a very small group with a small, dedicated team with just one part-time paid worker who are providing a fantastic service to the community and helping the council do things that we weren’t able to do on our own.
So I got more involved in what they do and when we started to think about how we would be commissioning the voluntary sector differently – in order to give more security and a base and also to have a recognition that we were all working for a common aim and defining what those common goals are – I suggested that this group was included. Which was unusual because our other strategic partners are organisations like Age Concern and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau – quite large organisations with lots of paid staff and much larger funding streams. And to include a small group like this was quite unusual.
But when we looked in more detail at what they were doing and the service they were providing, we understood that actually it was in our best interest to support them. Because they have an outreach into the community that we wouldn’t be able to have on our own, they’re providing a service that we wouldn’t be able to provide nearly as well and they’re also providing us with information about the people living in this borough. They know far quicker than us and far better than us who is coming into the borough, where they’re living, what they’re doing and what their aspirations are.
So they can provide us with information that we need in order to do our job properly.
Anne Towner: We got involved with the Basis Project because we saw some publicity about the possibility of getting a trustee from (the company) KPMG – and we are very short of trustees, we need more people. From that we found out about the Basis Project and applied to be involved.
We are due for a revamp of certain things. Our last business plan was drawn up in 2007 and it’s amazing how quickly these things date. So we had Elaheh (one of the Basis Project Organisational Development Officers) along to one of our meetings and we sketched out a few areas we are interested in developing and she has helped us to develop an action plan for those.
That will include, hopefully, getting a new trustee but that’s not the only thing. We need to tidy up our membership, we need to broaden our funding base and we need to consider becoming a company limited by guarantee – that would protect trustees against any exposure to financial loss.
The best thing is when things work. When things go well. When you get your strategic partnership or you have an event and it goes well. The other good thing is when people come back and report a success – we had some people come back the other day to report that their grown-up son and just been allowed to join them (in this country) and there was great rejoicing. Those things are good. That’s when you think it really is all worthwhile. We won’t talk about the other times!
By providing weekly visits to immigration detainees and other forms of assistance, the Dover Detainee Vistor Group strives to improve the quality of life of people held in detention centres.
Transcript
Alan Ramsay: I was a priest south of the river in London for 38 years and when I retired we came to live in Kent.
Vebi Kosumi: I’m the director of the Dover Detainee Visitor Group (DDVG). Our charity was set up in 2002 when a group of volunteers supported by Refugee Action, Kent Refugee Action Network and the Association of Visitors to Immigration Detainees.
Alan Ramsay: A group of us came together when we heard that this removal centre was to be opened in Dover and thought it might be helpful if the detainees had visitors from outside. Somebody who’s not a solicitor, not from the prison service
Vebi Kosumi: Our relationship with Dover Immigration Removal Centre I would classify as ‘professional’ and we are able to communicate with each other very easily. We attend the diversity meeting and we meet with centre management on a regular basis. As a result of our communications, for the first time in any removal centre, mobile phones were provided for detainees and we have had other requests that have been approved. We advocate for better facilities for detainees and we act as a bridge between detainees and centre management.
Alan Ramsay: Although we euphemistically call them removal centres – that’s what they’re there for – not all detainees are removed. A number are bailed and some get leave to remain, eventually. The period of detention can be very extensive – we have had detainees who have been in Dover for three years.
Beatriz Fernandez: My name is Beatriz, and I work for the Basis Project as part of Refugee Action’s Basis Project team. I met Vebi and DDVG through my colleague who had a long relationship with them already. So I came to their ex-detainees conference at the beginning of 2008 and they said ‘Great – we do need some help; you could come and help us with our business plan.’
We started with an evaluation of what had been happening with DDVG so far. We looked at the successes and also the challenges – what had been difficult for them throughout the years. We realised that they were doing really wonderful work supporting and training volunteers from the local community and we also realised that the volunteers were being tremendously helpful; they gave detainees a window of light in a very dark place. I think that it was crucial for the staff and volunteers and management committee to realise that they were actually doing really good work.
It was a long process but by December we were ready with new priorities and new outcomes for the organisation – well, not new but more well defined. Then Marianela came back from maternity leave and she was ready to get her hands on the application for the Big Lottery Fund.
Marianela Clayton: I started as a volunteer for DDVG five years ago and after that I have had every imaginable position – admin assistant, project worker, assistant co-ordinator, and now I am the strategic planning and development manager. But most of the time I have concentrated on fundraising.
Beatriz Fernandez: While writing the application we had lots of conversations, back and forth, about what we understood by ‘outcomes’ and ‘milestones’ and all the things the Big Lottery asks you to talk about. We had to work on transferring our business plan – our plan for the year – into the language that the Big Lottery Fund, and most other funders, speak. It was a two-way process, together understanding what the Big Lottery Fund expected from us, how they expected us to put the information in and working out what that meant in reality.
Marianela Clayton: Even with the success that we had, with the money covering the core services, we needed a big fund to secure our work for the next three-to-five years. We applied to the Big Lottery Fund and in that period while we were waiting was extremely stressful - the recession was at its height and was the main problem for every organisation in the third sector. But during that period the Basis Project was there all the time reassuring us, providing us with information about other funders and helping us with an emergency plan to continue with the core services and involve the trustees a little bit more so that the organisation could continue, and continue growing [even if we didn’t get the Big Lottery funding].
Vebi Kosumi: We were expecting that by the 19th of May we would know about the outcome of our application to the Big Lottery Fund. However, it took longer and it came to June and, I remember, a member of staff said ‘Why don’t you contact them?’. So I phoned them and the grants officer answered, she checked and then when they told me about the outcome I put the phone down, didn’t speak to anyone and then I gave Marianela a kiss on both cheeks! She didn’t know what was happening, and I still didn’t say anything – but she soon realised and it was a very happy moment. So much work had been put into it, and we got £397,000 which for a charity like ours is a lifeline for the next three years.
Marianela Clayton: The whole office fell very quiet. We were all very nervous – I was going to be out of a job, the other man who worked here was going to be out of a job – and all of a sudden we received this great news and everyone was jumping and happy and we couldn’t believe it; we were really thankful to the Basis Project for all the support. And we were thinking: well, now we need to do this, we need to monitor that – we wanted to do everything at the same time! We wanted to satisfy our funders, our service users, our service providers. We already had the plans but now we dared to dream a little bit more.
Beatriz Fernandez: I was at home off sick when Vebi rang me and I was feeling really dizzy and bad, but when he rang me I was really happy. I felt chills in my skin! I was really, really happy for them because I know the organisation will continue doing more of the great work they do already whereas, if they hadn’t got it, it would have meant their services would have shrunk dramatically.
Marianela Clayton: We are really thankful to the Big Lottery Fund, of course. This is the second time we have got money from them and that’s the reason why we exist. £397,000 is not easy to get from funders or companies – only funders like the Big Lottery Fund can fund a project like this.
Vebi Kosumi: The Basis Project has supported us a lot – particularly Beatriz Fernandez has been a great support in developing our overall organisational capacity, as well as supporting us in fundraising.
The Chadian Community Centre in London has been working with the Basis Project to secure funds for premises. They recently had their first success, £5,000 from Grassroots Grants.
Transcript
Sharmarke Diriye:
“My name is Sharmarke Diriye and I’m one of the Organisational Development Officers for London for the Basis Project. I started working in April of this year. That’s when I was able to contact the Chadian Community in London.”
Ahamat Hassan
“My name is Ahmed Hassan and I am chairman of Chadian Community in London which was founded to serve Chadian people who live in this country. The reason that we decided to create this organisation is that Chadian people have certain barriers to accessing public services so we believe having a refugee community group can help change their life.”
Sharmarke:
“The way the Basis Project works is that as an Organisational Development Officer I try to find out the needs of the organisation. One of the first things I was able to spot was that the organisation had been existing for almost four years without any funding at all. So I was able to prioritise funding for them.”
Ahamat:
“The activities we do include having a football club in London – we play every Saturday. We also recruit volunteers to teach children after school and on Sundays. This year we decided to make the organisation more formal because the service is needed and we cannot rely on people’s contributions. So we approached the Refugee Council and we were advised to approach the Basis Project.
“It is not easy to raise funds for a refugee organisation. It is difficult to find funders and to know how to fill in an application form and how to meet the criteria. So the Basis Project really helped us. We applied for Grassroots Grant to get office space so we could give information and advice.
“Our application was successful – actually, that’s good news. We got about £5,000. So we need to find some office space which is expensive. But this is a good start. We are looking forward to fundraising for our football activities and also to keep going with our project.
Sharmarke:
“Luckily the Chadian Community in London were able to secure funding from Grassroots Grants programme managed by the Capital Community Foundation. The funding was secured to help the organisation in two ways. One is to secure premises and secondly to support the programmes they want to run – mainly to do with information, advice and guidance on issues like social housing, welfare rights and employment programmes. The idea is to use volunteers who would be able to refer clients to specific agencies, to have a session worker and a place where people can come to get this assistance.
“When the organisation was successful in getting the funding it was amazing to see the happiness of the trustees and everyone else involved with the organisation. And also the new belief they had that they could secure funds from trusts and statutory organisations. So hopefully this will pave the way for the organisation.”
Ahamat:
“Office running costs and office space are important for the organisation to start because we have to receive letters at one house and another house and we don’t have a place people can go and see someone to get advice. The first question to us is always ‘Where are you based?’ and it’s really difficult. So I think it’s really important to have some space where people can have face-to-face interviews with service providers and also for us to have an address for the community. It’s a big step.”
Sharmarke:
“The Chadian community has a big concentration in London, but it is scattered all over London. So it will be fantastic to have a place for other Chadians to come. Although the funding is specific for people who live in Lambeth, because it’s the only legally constituted Chadian community group in the UK, you can imagine that any Chadian in London would like to come to be assisted or to give something back to the community.”
Ahamat
“The members of the Chadian Community are really happy that the Basis Project that the Basis Project support us, especially Sharmarke who did a lot of work. And now once we get the funding through, we are ready to move into the premises by the end of next week. So it’s a very good start.”
I met with Kaveh Kalantari, the Funding and Development Manager of the Iranian Association, to find out about the challenges facing their organisation, and how they plan to tackle them. The Iranian Assoication was set up in 1985 in response to the needs of Iranian refugees who fled Iran after the 1979 revolution. They support refugees and ethnic minorities through services such as immigration and welfare advice, Life in the UK test, Basic Skills education, cultural activities, supplementary schools, and health advice. They employ 10 paid staff, 3 sessional workers and around 15 volunteers a year who help run these services.
Even though they are an established RCO they still face problems. Over the last 2 years they have had a 30% drop in income, and are predicting more reductions. The recession has had something to do with this: cuts in government funding, and increased competition between RCOs for trust funding. They find Big Lottery funding particularly inaccessible, but Kaveh is determined to be successful!
Through talking to Kaveh, I learnt about the importance for organisations to be flexible and adaptable to changing economic and social environments. The Iranian Association amended their constitution so that they could diversify. Now over 50% of their clients are non-Iranian, including a large number of Polish people from the local community. They even considered changing their name, but realised the importance of their title – it symbolises the original needs of their community. Kaveh believes that single group funding is still needed, as many RCOs provide services to people who can’t go to other mainstream services because of language or cultural barriers. But a balance is definitely needed between supporting isolated communities, and providing a service for everyone.
We spoke about partnership work, and how it is another good way of sustaining services. They had a franchise with the Hammersmith and West London college for 11 years, providing IT and ESOL courses, and have developed other partnerships through word of mouth. But where do RCOs begin in developing partnerships? Kaveh told me that accrediting services can improve fundraising success, as it shows professionalism and commitment to quality. He also mentioned that the Legal Services Commission should stop its plans to start charging for the Quality Mark; many RCOs cannot afford to pay and should have the same access to opportunities as other organisations.
However, partnership work can be challenging too. RCOs have to overcome fierce competition from mainstream organisations who are trying to win funding through commissioning of services. Kaveh has experienced that mainstream organisations often promise partnership work, but then don’t deliver. Many RCOs see the Refugee Council as one of these competitors. Kaveh feels that the Refugee Council should explore more adamantly partnership building, breaking down barriers between RCOs and mainstream organisations. If the Iranian Association can develop a partnership with a local college, why not with the Refugee Council too?
Kaveh has another idea in the pipeline for the Iranian Association: setting up a social enterprise arm for ESOL and translation. This would help to generate income for other services.
Having spent a couple of hours in Kaveh’s company, I really sensed that the Iranian Association opens its doors to everyone. It encourages all refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities to come for support, including marginalised groups such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender individuals, who may find it hard to talk openly within their community. I think that their openness and honesty will encourage integration in our society.
Last month Penny McLean and I spent a very enjoyable day with Shpetim Alimeta (Basis Project Organisational Development Officer for the East of England) visiting the Peterborough African Community Organisation.
They're a terrific group and, with Shpetim's help, managed to secure funding for a community radio station at the end of last year.
Here's the film we made about their work. (A transcript is available on the Basis Project website.)
Here's our latest video - about the West London Somaliland Community, who have been working with the Basis Project for the past year.
West London Somaliland Community – transcript
Id: “My name is Id Hassan Muse , I’m the co-ordinator of West London Somaliland Community and we’re here today to take part in a tournament that a club has organised for the kids during the Easter holidays.”
Adam: “My name’s Adam and I’m 13-years-old and I love going to the Somalilanders Community because it gives me a chance to play football and I love what I do. And it gives me a chance to meet all of my friends because they also go. I think it’s brilliant.
“Behind me there’s a football tournament going on. I normally play up front to score some goals and in the last game I scored the final goal and we’re top of our league table.”
Id: “We have now more than 80 children registered with the club and 60 children come regularly every Saturday for ages 10 to 17. We have a very diverse group, with Asian children, White British, Somalilanders and other Somalis. And we are really proud of our team.”
Abdullahi Ali
“My name’s Abdullahi Ali. I’m the organiser of this event as well as the Chairman of West London Somaliland Community. In Somali we’d say ‘Ku soo dhawaada’ which is wide, open-handed welcome you here. This event is for the 18th anniversary of Somaliland regaining freedom from dictatorship and we’re hoping to get 600 people here. There will be playing, music, singing, dancing, poetry, speeches about the culture and history of the country to teach the younger people about what happened, why it happened and what we achieved from it.”
Id: “This project is funded by the Football Foundation. It is a two year project and after the two years we hope to be able to sustain the project through the Football Foundation and to develop it more widely with the social outcomes.”
Liban: “Hi, my name’s Liban, I’m 12-years-old, I play centre midfield and I like my team because they pass around, they do a lot of action and they come back all the time.”
Caption: The Discovery of the Talents was founded in 2006 by Justin Nsiko Bankwa, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In 2008, with help from the Basis Project, they got funding from Trafford Hall for an allotment project in Birmingham.
Caption: David Hirst, the Basis Project Organisational Development Officer in the West Midlands.
“I’ve known Justin and his group probably for about a year and I’ve supported their willingness to get an allotment and encouraged them – I sent a few emails to the council when they lost their application and generally encouraged them.”
Caption: They plan to plant a range of fruit and vegetables, including some that also grow in DRC.
Justin:
“First of all we plant callaloo, which we are 100% sure will grow up here. And we will try other fruit and other vegetables like cabbage, beans and maize which we are 100% sure will grow.”
Caption: The Discovery of the Talents wants to encourage as many refugees as possible to work on and enjoy the allotment. They plan to expand the allotment to accommodate as many people as wish to join them.
Justin:
“It is a very good experience for us. When, one day, if I am back in the Congo, I can see which is the best place to do an allotment project.”
The Basis Project Run in partnership by the Refugee Council and Refugee Action, the Basis Project is working with Refugee Community Organisations across England. Read more on our website. Contact us.
