On Monday 14 March Soroptimist International St Albans and District hosted a Refugees Event to mark International Women’s Day. What we heard was inspiring and moving and the poignancy of it was reinforced because of the Russian attack on Ukraine which has happened since this event was planned.
The Club’s President Barbara Saunders welcomed everyone and introduced Irene Austin, 
Chair of Herts Welcomes Refugees www.hwsf.org.uk. Our Member Pamela Rochford has been part of the scheme from when Syrian refugees first began to settle in Hertfordshire.
Irene delivered an excellent presentation giving us insight into the work of HWR and ways that we can help.
The organisation was originally called Herts Welcomes Syrian Families and as initially set up as a lobbying group to get Hertfordshire to accept Syrian refugees. Since then, over 50 families have now settled in Hertfordshire. The resettlement scheme was merged with vulnerable children’s resettlement scheme and now all the resettlement schemes have merged into one scheme. There is however a separate scheme for those from Afghanistan and there is now a scheme for Ukrainian refugees.
Herts Welcomes Refugees provides a range of assistance and support to refugees and asylum seekers across the county to complement that provided by local councils and the Refugee Council’s Hertfordshire Resettlement Project. They also help some refugees and asylum seekers who are not supported by either the Refugee Council or local councils. As Hertfordshire is so big the organisation split into areas lead by area conveners. In the last year they supported around 400 people. They support refugees and provide a welcome package but don’t do casework.
They provide a link with local authorities and agencies and coordinate a network of volunteers (currently about 70 volunteers). Irene said that befriending and learning English are the most important things to help refugees settle in. In addition they listen to the needs of refugees as they change, provide extra household goods, organise social opportunities, run a bike scheme (very successful and have given out hundreds of bikes since the scheme inception), support refugees who want to drive and have an educational fund to support learning and extracurricular activities.
During COVID social activities were transferred online and all families were provided access to Chromebooks. They are all volunteers other than the Volunteer Coordinator who is a paid employee. Worked in partnership with other organisations such as Herts for Refugees and Herts Asian Women’s Association.
New challenges: Herts County Council put together a plan to welcome Afghan refugees using 3 ‘bridging hotels’ housing around 400 refugees. The hotels were initially set up to house families for a short period whilst permanent accommodation is found but many have now been there for 6 months. There is an issue with housing not being allocated to people in Hertfordshire due to lack of suitable accommodation and this is presents a challenge.
HWR initially worked to supply the Afghan refugees with goods like mobile phones and now goods are less in demand so work is now mostly in supporting language skills. There are now also hotels in Hertfordshire housing adult asylum seekers. Much more support is needed here and three charities, HWR, Herts for Refugees and STAR (St Albans Refugees) are trying to meet the needs of the people in those hotels. The statutory requirements are to provide children with education and people with access to doctors.
They are currently looking how to support Ukrainian refugees but have concerns regarding the lack of infrastructure currently in place from government. The charity will open up their volunteer network to people housing refugees from Ukraine but there is a lot of uncertainty about how long the situation will last.
Needs: HWR currently needs more volunteers and admin support and another area convener for the St Albans area.
Q&A: In answer to questions Irene told us that most of the refugees are family groups. The asylum seekers are mostly individuals or couples plus a few family groups.
All language support is provided by volunteers and most are ESOL trained. HWR has Crowdfunded for needs as they arose. Refugees don’t pay for accommodation, this is covered by the Home Office. HWR has 300 members some of who donate to the charity, plus many other organisations who have given funding and donated goods.
Please click here to view Irene’s presentation in PDF format HWR SISTA Presentation March 2022 and click her to read the notes accompanying the slides HWR SISTA Notes from Presentation March 2022
We also heard the moving life experience as a refugee from our own Member Beatriz Sampson. Beatriz is a leading jewellery historian, author and curator. Beatriz has a fascinating story to tell – her family were refugees five times in the last 100 years – she is a Cuban refugee who fled the country as a child and witnessed the Cuban Revolution.
Beatriz told us that she was born in Cuba to Russian and British parents with grandparents from Lithuania and Russia. She explained some of her family history going back to her grandparents and her parents prior to her birth fleeing during the Russian Revolution and persecutions in Europe. She shared the challenges and trauma her family experienced finding a safe place to settle moving to many places and countries at short notice very few possessions and losing track of wider family members. This was due to the changing political situation and the risks to Jewish people before and at the outbreak of WWII. Her parents were able to settle in Cuba but shortly after Beatriz was born the Cuban Revolution broke out. The family had to flee Cuba separately as they were at risk of being shot for treason. Beatriz settled in Germany with her parents. Her father had skills in jewellery design and diamond cutting which led to him being offered work in Frankfurt am Main. Beatriz had to learn German at school and because of the trauma experienced she lost the ability to speak Spanish. Beatriz stayed in Germany for 32 years where she also did her degree at University. Nearly 27 years ago she moved to England with her late husband Raymond (who is fondly remembered by some of our Club Members). Beatriz talked frankly and movingly about the fragile sense of identity she experiences due to a lack of Nationality. She described feeling “at home everywhere but nowhere”. Beatriz was baptised as Catholic even though her father’s family were ethnically Jewish but remained non-religious and her mother was Church of England, all religions were respected. Against this background she lacks the belonging to a religion which provides a sense of community, and thus the sense of no identity is compounded. She shared that she continues to live with the fear of losing citizenship because it has become so ingrained and passed down within her family history.
We are all really grateful to Beatriz for sharing her personal story and giving the group a personal insight into the refugee experience.
Please read Beatriz’s biography here: https://jewelleryoutlook.com/personality-profile-beatriz-chadour-sampson-is-a-leading-jewellery-historian-author-and-curator/
You can also click to read this article about Beatriz in the New York Times As a Historian, She Follows the Clues
Our Member Anna Barrett has been meeting with Kurdish asylum seeker refugees who are staying at the Noke Hotel in St Albans – what Irene described earlier as a “bridging hotel”. Anna and some volunteers from Greenwood URC and St Barts Church are holding coffee and conversation sessions to help with language and Anna has helped a mother and child with attendance at her toddler group at Greenwood URC. Anna is looking for more volunteers and opportunities for the refugees to do some unpaid voluntary work.
Our Member Maria Podrajanskaya, who is from Russia and lives in St Albans, shared her personal situation with family in Ukraine and Russia. She told us that in Russia you can be fined for saying there is a war and people can be imprisoned for 15 years. The media has been shut and social media is being closed down too. Access to news within Russia is extremely restricted so many people don’t understand the situation. This control of the media in Russia has caused her to lose her job there that she carried out from here in the UK. She expressed grave concern for members of her wider family who live in Ukraine. She told us that many Russian and Ukrainian have family members in both countries and are being torn apart by what is happening. All the Soroptimists on the Zoom call expressed support and love for Maria and the people in Russia and everywhere impacted by war. #SoroptimistsStandForPeace.
As well as our Members we were able to welcome some lovely guests, including a Soroptimist from SI Bielsko-Biala in Poland. Bo Zdzitowiecka was able to report on the situation with Ukrainian Refugees in Poland and how she and other Soroptimists in Poland have been able to help. She said that at present it is mostly women and children who are crossing the border from Ukraine into Poland. She said there are already 1.75 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland!
Everyone was left pensive at the end of the evening after hearing from our speakers and contributors, there is so much to think about. This was a fitting way to mark International Women’s Day….
Beatriz invited Jo Gilbertson, a Soroptimist friend from SI Winchester. She also invited a personal friend Verite Reily who has a useful Website for cancer survivors: www.aftercancers.com.The website was set up to provide support and information. Verite says about her website “I am NOT medically qualified, instead write about helpful information that has been given me by medical professionals, in the UK and also abroad”.
Before closing the meeting with some Club financial business, President Barbara explained about the donations the Club would be making to the SI Poland War Zone Initiative. This cause was commended to us by our friendship link in SI Warsaw www.soroptimist-projects.org/avada_portfolio/war-zone-initiative-si-poland. We can take donations via the Soroptimist International St Albans & District website by clicking here www.sigbi.org/st-albans/donate
Any queries please email sistalbans@hotmail.com