A Moveable Feast
By Safiya Young August has been a very exciting month, in terms of cooking. Women’s Voice, a “non-profit CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) run by and for women in Hastings and St Leonards”, recently hosted a series of workshops to promote…
Wi-Fi Refugee On St Leonards Seafront
A homeless Hastings woman with a complex medical condition is facing huge fines for non-payment of parking tickets. Roxanne Roma has been living in a camper van on St Leonards sea front since March this year. Numerous parking tickets litter…
Syrian Resettlement: “Working Brilliantly”, Says Project Co-ordinator
Simon Finlay, Project Co-ordinator of the Syrian Resettlement Programme at Hastings Borough Council, seems a happy man these days. He has spent half a lifetime working for organisations that have endeavoured, on a shoestring, to assist refugees to negotiate the…
Emergency Refugee Camp Dentistry
It’s hard to imagine anything worse than being forced to uproot your family, abandon your home and set off across the planet in search of sanctuary. For many refugees the struggle is made far worse by sickness and physical pain.…
Sanctuary Festival: Sun, Food, Music and Swimming
The beautiful walled garden of Ashburnham Place rang with sounds of music and laughter last Sunday (23rd June) as the Hastings Community of Sanctuary celebrated its Festival by the Lake. Now in its third year, this annual event aims to…
The Refugee Experience: A Two-tier System
In September 2015, the then Prime Minister David Cameron pledged that the UK would welcome 20,000 refugees from camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years. The Syrian Resettlement Programme was the result of this pledge, and…
BUDDY UP – Hastings Local Wins International Women’s Day Award
By Gareth Stevens Rossana Leal, founder of the Hastings & Rother Refugee Buddy Project has had her innovative community leadership work recognised at the Women of the World Festival in London. PICTURE: Dave Young On Sunday 10th March, the day…
Share the Journey – Local Walkers Support Refugees
Local church-based walking group The Amblers are joining with other church groups, friends and anyone wanting to show their solidarity with or reflect on the plight of the many tens of millions of refugees and migrants feeling lost in the…
Being British
Alex Ntung arrived in Hastings as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has made his life in Britain working for community cohesion, as co-founder of Education 4 Diversity, and as an Associate Lecturer at Canterbury Christ…
Trapped in Refugee Limbo
This is the story of a boy called Javad. And it’s the story of a couple called Terry and Stuart who live in a small house in Hastings with two pampered cats. Javad now lives there too, sleeping in the…