As part of the national week of action organised by Together with Refugees, Asylum Welcome is organising a Youth Week of Action from the 18th-24th October. This is an opportunity for children and young people to express solidarity with refugees and to contribute to making Oxfordshire a more welcoming place. To mark this week, and as a countdown to the arrival of Little Amal in Oxford on the 26th October, we are looking at how young people can learn about and support refugees in Oxfordshire. We will be publishing an article every day this week, sharing resources designed for children and young people to support refugees, and celebrating the contribution that young people are already making. This page will be updated daily as each new post is published.
The first action in our Youth Week of Action focusses on engaging young people. After some consultation, we have expanded our social media horizons… and we are now on Instagram! Why not follow us?
What actions can primary, secondary and sixth form students take to make Oxford a more welcoming place for young refugees? Four of our supporters, from eight to eighteen years old, offer us some ideas.
When Afghan families started to arrive in Oxfordshire at the beginning of September, many of us wanted to show our support but weren’t sure how. So we produced a list of 12 actions that anyone can do from their homes to show solidarity with refugees. Now, as part of the Youth Week of Action, we have put together a new list designed especially for children and young people.
Little Amal has inspired a partnership between Asylum Welcome and The Story Museum. Together we have created ‘Beyond Amal’, a professional development story guide training initiative. Find out more about the project here!
Asylum Welcome benefits from extraordinary support from local schools. Never has this been more apparent than during these last months. Many school communities – children, teachers, staff, parents and carers – have fundraised, collected food donations, and offered a range of support to our clients and the new Afghan arrivals. Thank you to you all!
In this guest blog, our good friends Refugee Resource describe the future plans for the development of a Refugee Football Group in Oxford. This group is aimed at refugees, asylum seekers and vulnerable migrant young men in Oxford and Oxfordshire who are finding it difficult to access appropriate mainstream services.
Asylum Welcome is currently supporting a number of Afghan families in hotels across Oxfordshire. At the core of our work is our team of dedicated and versatile interpreters. Most of our interpreters are young students, including Wasi, Florence, Merzia and Fuchsia, who took some time out to chat to us about their experiences translating in the hotels.
As part of our Have Heart, Take Heart campaign, over 250 people have written messages of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers in Oxfordshire. As part of our Youth Week of Action, 27 Year 12 students at Magdalen College School wrote their messages of welcome. Read their messages here or watch a short video created from their messages here.