tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59085895844910663992024-03-13T12:43:25.829+00:00Solace Surviving Exile and PersecutionMental Health, Asylum Seekers and RefugeesSolace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-84599656605243932402016-05-12T17:11:00.000+01:002016-05-12T17:33:13.013+01:00The Difference We Make<span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">In
the last year we have helped 235 asylum seekers and refugees in Leeds and
Bradford, providing 2,591 individual and family therapy sessions. 38
people attended our stress management group over the past year. The group
focuses on learning self-help techniques for reducing stress and anxiety, which
most of our clients struggle to manage on a daily basis. </span><br />
<span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
As one client said:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
<em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"When I can't make it to
the group, I know the time, so go through the exercises by myself for an hour,
just as if I was there, and I feel calmer."</span></em></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span></em></span><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
The Icarus Collective have helped us evaluate the impact of all our work on our
clients in the last two years, which they described as helping people move <em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">"from a position of hopelessness
and despair to one in which they feel more capable of managing and coping with
their situation." </span></em></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><em><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"></span></em></span><span style="color: #202020; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
This includes people sleeping better, managing stress, feeling more positive,
establishing new relationships and having a sense of a future. As well as
reviewing all our client outcomes, Icarus looked in depth at our training
services and our triage system. If you would like to read the full report
please contact <span style="color: #2baadf;"><a href="mailto:kate.graham@solace-uk.org.uk" target="_blank">Kate</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Watch a video at </span><a href="https://vimeo.com/55474409"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/55474409">https://vimeo.com/55474409</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"> one of the techniques people learn in our stress management groups.</span> </span><br />
<span style="color: #2baadf; font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<h4>
</h4>
Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-24709265296611779782015-09-08T13:43:00.002+01:002015-12-16T15:57:31.691+00:00Homeless Story<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashkan came to Solace this morning, exhausted and a bit
dishevelled. We hadn’t seen him for over two years. We weren’t expecting him,
but that’s how it is. He was feeling suicidal after another night sleeping in
the park down the road. ‘I wake up feeling stressed and confused. I wish God
would help me and give me a chance in life. I have nowhere to go – no house, no
family, no money, no job’.</span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashkan isn’t allowed to work. It’s one of the conditions the
Home Office imposes on him or he risks being fined up to £5,000 or being sent
to prison up to six months. Like other destitute asylum seekers, he has no
source of income, so he wouldn’t be able to pay the fine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another condition imposed on Ashkan is that he must live at
‘no fixed abode’. Sometimes he sleeps on the sofa at a friend’s house but his
friend is in a precarious position as well and has very little money. The
friend insists he pays £5 into the metre to take a shower - money he doesn’t
have very often unless someone gives him some.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘The last shower I had was a week ago. Sometimes I smell
bad’. It’s the same problem with clothes. He only has the ones he’s wearing,
including his trousers which are too big for him. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Food is a problem, too. Sometimes he doesn’t eat at all. If
he gets given some money then he can eat. ‘Yesterday I had one egg and some
bread’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On Tuesday night, I woke up under a bush in the park after a
couple of hours sleep. ‘I asked God, what am I doing?’ Two or three hours is as
good as it gets for a ‘night’s’ sleep in the park. Sometimes I come across a
drunk pissing in the bushes. They have never pissed on me but sometimes I get
kicked when I am asleep.’ </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Occasionally, Ashkan bumps into Ahmed, a barefooted
Egyptian, in the middle of the night in the park. He sleeps rough, too. ‘Don’t
give up’, he says to me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashkan is 32 now and has lived in the UK for eleven years.
He was an asylum seeker who received £35 vouchers for basics and a roof over
his head, but after losing his appeal to become a refugee, he was left
destitute in January 2014. Up until that point, the Home Office sent him first
to Leeds and then Barnsley. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘The last year and a half has been a bad time for me. I’m
getting more stressed and depressed. Sometimes I hate myself’. Ashkan wanted to
say more, but he lost his train of thought and his eyes glazed over – ‘My brain
isn’t working properly. I can’t think straight. I’m exhausted’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why, when life is so desperate, doesn’t he just return to
Iran? ‘Because they will kill me’, he says with no hesitation. ‘The Home Office
don’t believe me, but I know it’s true. Why would I live like this if it was
safe for me to return?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It all began about 15 years ago when he met and fell in love
with a girl he met in Tehran. Ashkan was working in a supermarket at the time
and life was good. He was from an ordinary family who weren’t ambitious. His
girlfriend, on the other hand, was from a high status family. Her father was a
powerful mover and shaker in the Iranian regime and knew nothing about the
relationship between his daughter and Ashkan. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For three years, the whole thing was kept secret until one
day they managed to find some time together alone in his parents’ house and his
girlfriend became pregnant. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ashkan was working in the supermarket when the Police
arrived to take him away for questioning about the relationship. Had his
grandmother not bailed him out, that would have been the end for him. He knew
he wasn’t safe because he had cast shame on a powerful man’s family, so he
escaped to Turkey and from there moved on to the UK.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How does he know he would have been tortured or killed or
both? ‘My family had lots of problems after I left constantly wanting to know
where I was. My cousin called me about five years ago to tell me they had
tortured my brother because of me, wanting to know where I was. My family have
disowned me now because of the trouble I have caused.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Home Office and immigration judges don’t believe any of
this and presumably think his life would not be under threat if he went back to
Iran, but it is hard to understand why anyone would choose to be homeless,
sleeping in a park, if there are better options available. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘I loved that girl too much and she loved me. We only slept
together once. I was 19 and she was 18.’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When it rains, Ashkan sleeps under a bridge or in the bushes
in the park. ‘I wake up all the time because it is cold, even in the Summer. I
wake up feeling stressed and confused. Sometimes I go for a walk in the middle
of the night to warm up. I can’t carry on like this’.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>You can help people like Ashkan by donating to Solace using the Justgiving link on the right hand side of this post. </strong></span></div>
Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-9927607311420339872014-11-06T16:25:00.004+00:002014-11-20T12:08:17.900+00:00My Crazy Life<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NxtkPZ9LpAmI-_TD54oC9tSy6K7sIZWXrgGO1NdQFBn5AazblGM19-S7GXiJjoWNXQBubBYjafwXhnjMduSS1lPbJIvQ57EErCDyWvvJ3zDs2UuNwYTbWtFXtQ0IUUWJvdVw5vFCzWc/s1600/_SIP7089.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NxtkPZ9LpAmI-_TD54oC9tSy6K7sIZWXrgGO1NdQFBn5AazblGM19-S7GXiJjoWNXQBubBYjafwXhnjMduSS1lPbJIvQ57EErCDyWvvJ3zDs2UuNwYTbWtFXtQ0IUUWJvdVw5vFCzWc/s1600/_SIP7089.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lemlem was an asylum seeker for five years before she became
a refugee in 2009. For two of those asylum-seeking years she was destitute,
sleeping on the streets in Portsmouth and then Leeds, which has left her with
some long-term health problems. You can read her back story in our <u><a href="http://www.solace-uk.org.uk/" target="_blank">first newsletter</a></u>. We first met Lemlem when she was an asylum seeker. It took two
years of hard work for us not just to stabilise her mentally but get her legal
help, which eventually led to her becoming a refugee. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many people assume that when an asylum seeker like Lemlem becomes
a refugee – the difference being that refugees are no longer at risk of
deportation and they are allowed to work in the UK – life becomes easier, but
our experience of working with hundreds of refugees is that this is far from
being the case. Lemlem’s experience of becoming a refugee illustrates the
difficulties many refugees face.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The key to working successfully with emotionally unstable
asylum seekers and refugees is helping them not just with their mental health
and physical pain arising out of prolonged stress, but with practical
difficulties as well –practical difficulties that range from legal
representation to negotiating with debt collection agencies.</span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lemlem’s relief at becoming a refugee soon turned to
worrying about having a roof over her head, money to pay the bills and food on
the table. Like most new refugees, the lack of these basic needs creates new
crises in their lives. With our help, she managed to get a house, but it had no
furniture, not even a mattress to sleep on. She had no money for weeks so she
had no means to buy basic food items, let alone a bed and something to sit on
other than the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was no gas,
water or electricity. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time we helped her sort out all of these things,
Lemlem was in debt. Each time a problem arose, which happened nearly every
week, she asked us to help her sort it out, whether it was the Benefits Agency,
the bank, a utility company or debt collection agency. Lemlem, like so many
refugees, quickly descended into the poverty trap, living in a Kafkaesque world
which was completely incomprehensible to her. People who promised didn’t
deliver, like the man who promised to help her get a fridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, the threatening letters kept arriving. For
Lemlem, like many asylum seekers and refugees with little or no English, any
official-looking letter, whether it is an appointment at the hospital or a
demand for payment, can cause extreme stress.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While Lemlem was trying to find her feet after years of hanging
by a thread, a bigger worry was casting a shadow over her life: her children –
all teenagers - were living a very precarious existence in Eritrea. Our work with
Lemlem was far from over despite helping for over two years. Her mental and
physical health started to deteriorate again as she faced the twin challenges
of a poverty-stricken life in the UK and worrying about her children hiding in
a remote village in Eritrea. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whilst successfully keeping the debt collectors away and the
benefits system onside, we contacted the Red Cross to ask them to help bring
Lemlem’s children to the UK, which then led to us contacting the UNHCR in
London, Libya and Sudan. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was quickly clear that the children could not be helped
until they could prove their identities (not easy, given that they were hiding
in a remote village in Eritrea). Even if all of these hurdles could be
overcome, there was then the problem of money. Who was going to pay for the
visas and the flights to the UK? So we organised a fundraising campaign and
succeeded in raising enough money to pay for the legal and administrative costs
of seeking asylum in the UK from Africa with the help of churches in Leeds, the
City of Sanctuary and Leeds Quakers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took over three years and two trips to Sudan before
Lemlem succeeded in getting her children out of Eritrea to the UK. Escaping
from Eritrea to Sudan was a drama in itself, involving walking down a river at
night to avoid being detected by the Eritrean military who shoot without
warning; a traumatic encounter with <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>kidnappers on the road to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan and hiding for weeks in a
safe house. A BBC correspondent interviewed them in Khartoum about their experience which you can listen to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016bhb1" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3sFSd9cxeoSLqMwf-MVXfhAypdQ5hKPPjltXjLdDhK4eG6RiZ6BOmE_tAax4SPcq31Ech1KD0YAb7N-c_RY3nsPJc6Ga1tX0p4tzZKX2iLzgYA9b4ZRSvQBkYcuMqHb9o0Wyzf6oln0/s1600/_SIP7090.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3sFSd9cxeoSLqMwf-MVXfhAypdQ5hKPPjltXjLdDhK4eG6RiZ6BOmE_tAax4SPcq31Ech1KD0YAb7N-c_RY3nsPJc6Ga1tX0p4tzZKX2iLzgYA9b4ZRSvQBkYcuMqHb9o0Wyzf6oln0/s1600/_SIP7090.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lemlem and three of her children in Leeds</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the time Lemlem got back to the UK – her children
followed later – she was greeted with a pile of final demands and week’s old
letters threatening to stop her benefits. And so, for the umpteenth time, we at
Solace were telephoning, faxing and emailing, trying to sort out Lemlem’s life,
not to mention all the talking and hands-on therapies we gave her to help
reduce the stress and anxiety of what she describes as ‘my crazy life.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-87310729128404912282014-06-12T17:02:00.001+01:002014-06-12T17:02:55.543+01:00French Asylum Seeker<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntfDXcM69yZtlKy-8eoa0NduGQF2aDHtb2oHIwNWS4aPihxIukylQ9Kq5UKlNKN8_J_LYRhxE5gwJuY_QZqH-viItA4rYyOZ7sK5w1Cd0nrXpre1CtbdFlOSDJjO9mo3tgZCOMUEERLc/s1600/French+asylum+seeker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntfDXcM69yZtlKy-8eoa0NduGQF2aDHtb2oHIwNWS4aPihxIukylQ9Kq5UKlNKN8_J_LYRhxE5gwJuY_QZqH-viItA4rYyOZ7sK5w1Cd0nrXpre1CtbdFlOSDJjO9mo3tgZCOMUEERLc/s1600/French+asylum+seeker.jpg" height="640" width="475" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntfDXcM69yZtlKy-8eoa0NduGQF2aDHtb2oHIwNWS4aPihxIukylQ9Kq5UKlNKN8_J_LYRhxE5gwJuY_QZqH-viItA4rYyOZ7sK5w1Cd0nrXpre1CtbdFlOSDJjO9mo3tgZCOMUEERLc/s1600/French+asylum+seeker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are deposited the remains of the Revd PETER DELAIRE, Rector and prior of Bazouges La Perouze in the Diocese of Rennes in Brittany. He departed this life on<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show"> th 16th Febry, 1800, Aged 82.</span></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="text_exposed_show"></span></span> </div>
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He was a clergyman of the most approachable Manners, of true piety and devotion and one of the many thousands of the French Ecclesiastics who sought and found Asylum in this Kingdom when they were reduced to the Necessities of Emigration</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show">
</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Graveyard in Richmond</span></div>
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</span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-13595371310466213892013-08-22T12:33:00.001+01:002014-06-05T12:08:52.736+01:00Motherland and England<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my motherland <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was rooted in the huts of the Dark
Continent,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheap dirty politics a course for
rooting<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Democracy, decomposing, degrading.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People incubating poverty,
possessiveness<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other belching, boosting, balancing<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Justice shattered, in shambles<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Justice swept by storm.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I remember, I remember<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the huts of the Dark Continent<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I visited the labour ward<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raising children, the biggest portion of
my life<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raising children, a lion’s share of my
support.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People dined together, family friends,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The sun stunning, shimmering.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">England is my mansion today:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I dine with my table and chairs, buzzing,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thinking of my fractured family.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My unconscious mind connecting<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fogged dreams far across the sea,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A chorus of music: “mum we miss you”.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So many things went wrong with<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where I belonged and with my belongings.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But I promised to produce and provide,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To keep and care for my family’s
children<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I see them landing in the country of
safety <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dining together.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the long journey of asylum presses,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The speed was the pace of a snail,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I reached the destination tired and torn.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The journey paralysed by fear<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yawning yet not yelling<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blooded but not beaten<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The journey punched a stroke.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I became a tourist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To tour hospitals<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As issues and concerns driving<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On my little balance of life<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Left me behind several decades<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With a brain of an alien.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cannot turn the clock back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we can complain<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may not perform miracles<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But you can support<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can’t change the law,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which was made by the people for the
people,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we can twist the situation<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the struggle of reunion<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are human nature with sensation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the name of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Margaret Katula.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"></span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
Margaret
Katula is a member of the SOLACE reading group. Currently led by Rachel Webster
and Oliver Cross, this group has been reading selections from a poetry
anthology entitled Being Human and from a nineteenth-century novel
entitled Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne.</span> Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-25582645489171972752013-05-10T10:41:00.002+01:002014-06-05T12:22:20.733+01:00In Memory of B B <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was not born to be a ghost</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 6pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but now I am the ghost of the machine</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that works the lungs the heart the kidneys</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of the body that is no longer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my body but the body</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of the congregation that prays for me</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">it is the winter of the new day</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of my birth when gifts are made</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and hands grasped in the other</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">country of my birth that I left</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to live with dogs and talk with djinns</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and beat on the door of the house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of exile where still I am refused</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my breath is an hydraulic ghost</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my voice has drowned in my lungs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the soul between my vertebrae pleads for release</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the snow on my lips is supernatural bread</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I leave you to think of my sister and mother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I leave you to ask what happened</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I leave you to find a home for my cat</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I leave you in the knowledge that I lived</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span> </h2>
Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-31216907482227650142013-05-02T16:15:00.002+01:002014-06-05T12:30:08.359+01:00Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Most of the
unaccompanied children we see are from Afghanistan (roughly half of all
unaccompanied children in the UK are from Afghanistan), nearly all of them
boys. Most of them have witnessed atrocities in their homeland and the death of
family members. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Most, too, have had long, tortuous journeys overland to get to
the UK. Common emotional problems include anger, fear, fear of their anger getting
out of control, fear of the Home Office, fear of demons, acute anxiety,
depression and suicidal thoughts, bereavement at the loss or disappearance of
close family members, nightmares, being punished by God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can read more in
the stories below and the astonishing story of Reza on page 14 of our 2011 annual review, which you can download here: </span><a href="http://www.solace-uk.org.uk/images/pdfs/SolaceAnnualReview2011.pdf"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.solace-uk.org.uk/images/pdfs/SolaceAnnualReview2011.pdf</span></a></span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-30437767683106767762013-05-02T16:12:00.001+01:002014-06-05T13:24:55.767+01:00Hassan's Story<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span></span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The unaccompanied children we see are usually referred
(and accompanied by) a social worker. This was the case with Hassan, aged 17.
Like many other unaccompanied minors, being separated from his family is very
painful for him and he struggles to cope emotionally on his own. He suffers
from nightmares and is often in tears. Hassan has a sense of hopelessness, not
knowing whether his family are dead or alive. <br />
<br />
<u3:p></u3:p>Like other unaccompanied children at 17, Hassan is about to face
the full force of the UK asylum system where he risks deportation. Underlying
feelings of anxiety have become acute because of the fear of being returned to
Afghanistan. This manifests itself as a sense of uselessness and lack of
control over his life. <br />
<br />
At the end of 2012 turned 18. Hassan was completely isolated with no
electricity in his house with no money to live on. Although he is entitled to
support from Social Services, his Social Worker has been off ill with no one to
replace the support worker. Hassan had been going hungry and felt unable to
look after himself. <br />
<br />
At Solace, we have worked hard to get his support back in place, so that he
would at least be warm and fed. We have also tried, through the Red Cross, to
trace his parents, but with no luck.<br />
<br />
<u4:p></u4:p><u3:p>Therapeutic work in situations like this is very difficult.
It is more important, for obvious reasons, to get his immediate physical needs
met and support him where we can (e.g. with his claim for asylum). It is
unlikely that he will make progress with his mental health until he is in a
more stable environment (i.e. has refugee status), but we can and do work hard
at preventing him from deteriorating further and he appreciates our help and
feels welcome at Solace.</u3:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<u1:p></u1:p><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<u1:p></u1:p></span></span></span></span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-30280840825400362013-05-02T16:07:00.000+01:002014-06-05T16:57:35.060+01:00Omar's Story<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Omar
arrived in the UK in the middle of last year and turned 17 in December, 2012.
Omar is from Syria. He feels very homesick and misses his family terribly. He
doesn’t know their whereabouts or whether they are still alive. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><br />
Omar is suffering from acute anxiety which, as with so many of the people we
support, is accompanied by physical manifestations of anxiety. In Omar’s case
severe palpitations and sweating. As with so many other people in his situation
(including Hassan in the above case study), Omar has regular nightmares and so
avoids sleeping as much as he can, which adds to his low mood.<br />
<br />
All these problems – again depressingly familiar to us at Solace – are
exacerbated by sub-standard housing. He has a leaking roof, mice, mould,
insects that bite him and have infested his clothes. He has no vacuum cleaner
or cleaning products. <br />
<br />
At Solace we try and help him sort these problems out by liaising with the
housing provider, putting pressure on any agency that is providing a
sub-standard service. <br />
<br />
Working on Omar’s behalf, of course, builds trust and with trust comes the
possibility of opening up and helping him address his mental health problems.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-7234794148944519202013-05-02T16:02:00.000+01:002014-06-05T13:23:26.535+01:00Asylum Seeking Familes<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Some of the
people we help at Solace have young families. In many cases, this means a single
mother with a young child (or children). Many of them have fled domestic
violence in countries where women have no protection and many have suffered
from sexual violence. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by a hostile asylum
process in the UK and state-imposed poverty (as a result of UK Government
policy), including poor housing (see <a href="http://harehillshouse.blogspot.co.uk/"><span style="color: blue;">http://harehillshouse.blogspot.co.uk</span></a>
) and lack of utilities, furniture and other facilities (see <a href="https://vimeo.com/54981354"><span style="color: blue;">https://vimeo.com/54981354</span></a>). Letters from
the Home Office refusing asylum are more common than those which grant asylum.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Physical
pain often accompanies emotional distress where physical ailments often feed
off emotional distress in a vicious circle of deteriorating wellbeing. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">It is hardly
surprising that in the face of all these difficulties, a mother (or mother and
father) often struggle with parenting however old the child. In many cases, a
young child ends up, in effect, caring for a parent. The anxieties of the
parents are often picked up by a child. Problems may arise at school or just
making friends. A child in these circumstances may be very lonely and
emotionally starved which will often lead to problems later on in life. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Our aim, as
with all our clients, is address as many of the problems they face as possible
which means liaising with schools, health workers, social services, midwives,
GPs among many others. Teaching parents parenting skills may be one of the
interventions we provide, as well as opportunities to play with toys which they
might not otherwise have. Home visits, activities groups (women’s group and
bibliotherapy group) and outings are also part of the mix to help support
emotional wellbeing. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The
difficulties described above are not exclusive to asylum seekers, but apply to
many with refugee status as well, because so many of them find it difficult to
get work and so often to continue to struggle in poverty. See Mana's story
below.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><br /></span><br />Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-54770404532368550422013-04-29T16:43:00.000+01:002014-06-05T13:25:30.975+01:00Mana's Story<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mana is a
mother with a teenage son who came to the UK a number of years ago from Iran
after a history of domestic violence. Mana was originally living in Bradford
but they were forced to move because of racist violence and bullying of her son
at school. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<u1:p></u1:p>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Mana and her
son have a difficult relationship at times. Both suffer from physical pain.
Mana suffers from migraines, shaking, vomiting, anxiety crying fits. Mana’s son
has thyroid problems and difficulties breathing.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">We have
supported Mana and her son for a couple of years intermittingly. Mana comes
back to Solace when she is in a bad emotional state which usually follows a
setback of some sort – an appeal against a housing or benefits decision.
Refusal letters of one description or another are a depressingly regular
feature of her life (and others we help). All of these relatively small
adversities can add up into something much bigger and affect mental and
physical health.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<u1:p></u1:p></span></span><br /></span><br />Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-91328100214985666892012-12-12T12:56:00.000+00:002013-05-02T16:32:30.980+01:00Solace in a Nutshell<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/54980979" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="500"></iframe><br />Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-61042096921256928102012-02-22T15:03:00.003+00:002014-06-05T12:00:14.609+01:00Mbole Kapola (1968-2012)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8d5qFt0pLXyOWAUkGxqzrE0-GCWx702DbRI0QblTwbvq_pF17WH8dxF2MjcHrHmeptkRGTFK3CQ5yspSi8r_DinTjBybfcPPeaNPdttm_-3N_20gxPYVS9z-GhSWcrn9wYEDSblSObKc/s1600/Mbole.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8d5qFt0pLXyOWAUkGxqzrE0-GCWx702DbRI0QblTwbvq_pF17WH8dxF2MjcHrHmeptkRGTFK3CQ5yspSi8r_DinTjBybfcPPeaNPdttm_-3N_20gxPYVS9z-GhSWcrn9wYEDSblSObKc/s320/Mbole.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5712295753869464226" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 313px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 180px;" /></a><br />
When Mbole came to the UK on 18 February 2000, he was hoping that the hell he had been through in the Congo was over and he could start a new life, free of worry and persecution. But it was not to be. When he died suddenly twelve years later on 10 February, 2012, he was still an asylum seeker waiting for his umpteenth appeal against deportation to the Congo, where all his Congolese friends and Mbole himself knew that he would not survive for long. <br />
<br />
Most of the last two year’s of Mbole’s life were spent in detention centres, not because he had committed any crime, but because the Home Office were determined to deport him. Mbole and his friends and allies were equally determined to prevent that from happening because they all understood that being sent back to the Congo was to all intents and purposes an outsourced death sentence. <br />
<br />
The Congolese authorities take a particularly dim view of Congolese nationals deported from the UK. Many of them are tracked as soon as they arrive at the airport and then picked up by the military and dumped in jails where they are tortured and killed. Mbole understood that this was the fate in store for him if he lost his right to remain in the UK.<br />
<br />
Mbole escaped from the Congo in 2000 after his entire family, including his parents, wife and two children, were all killed because of his father’s political involvement with a Rwandan group. Mbole was kept alive so he could be incarcerated in jail and tortured to extract information from him.<br />
<br />
Months of torture left their scars on Mbole, both physically and mentally. He suffered from chronic back pain and his leg never fully recovered after he was stabbed in jail. His body had all the signs of being tortured and his mind was clearly troubled by all of his experiences. <br />
<br />
Like many victims of torture and persecution, Mbole suffered from memory loss which was both a blessing and a curse. When he first sought asylum in the UK, the Home Office did not believe his story of persecution and torture. Immigration judges took the view that he was not a ‘credible witness’. They dismissed a medical report by an expert, which added weight to his claims that he had been tortured. <br />
<br />
I first met Mbole at Solace in 2008 after he had recently arrived in Leeds, having spent several months in prison in Scotland. He told me what had happened to him and why he needed Solace to help him. He showed me the holes in his body and arms.<br />
<br />
In the three and a half years I knew Mbole, he was detained four times, for months at a time, while the Home Office tried and failed to deport him. On each occasion, his solicitor’s submitted a bail application on the basis that he had committed no crime and was unlikely to abscond. ‘Where would I run away to?’ he asked me, shrugging his shoulders.<br />
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Mbole was the only client at Solace who I went to court with and acted as a surety, not just once, but four times. On one occasion I was asked by the judge why I was prepared to risk £500 as a surety for Mbole. I told the judge that when I first met Mbole, I was taken aback by the horrors that he had lived through and that he was being punished for no reason.<br />
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Mbole was a kind, gentle man, who, when he had the opportunity, liked to go out of his way to help other people. He was a regular church goer with a strong faith, who also worked at Oxfam as a volunteer. Whenever anyone helped Mbole or showed him some kindness he always said ‘God Bless You’, which included a judge on one occasion who had just ordered his release from detention.<br />
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Mbole was easily recognisable around town and on the bus with his colourful hats and clothes. At one of his many court appearances I suggested to him that it might not be a good idea to wear the hat with the colourful flowers. How about the red flowery shirt with the brown leather tie? No, not really a good idea, Mbole.<br />
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Mbole was glad that 2011 was over and he looked forward to a fresh start in 2012. His immigration case was awaiting a decision in the High Court – the last chance saloon. We still don’t know whether he would have been successful or not, but at least in the last few weeks he was feeling hopeful.<br />
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The last third of Mbole’s life was one of relentless persecution, either by the Congolese authorities or the UK asylum system that never believed him. In the end, aged forty four, Mbole’s body was ground down by all the adversity he faced with the full power of the State lined up against him for years on end. But he did score one victory. They never succeeded in deporting him. <br />
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God bless you, Mbole, and may you now rest in peace.Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-49006521482484307742011-10-24T12:15:00.000+01:002014-06-05T12:00:31.184+01:00By the Banks of River Asylum<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I sat pensive by the banks of river asylum,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tears flowed and blocked my sight,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wallowed in the thoughts of yesterday,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fraction of yesterday that was happy,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy yesterday decorated by sunshine,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Laughter oozed out like water from a broken cistern,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I blossomed in that career like a flower in spring,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Endless voices of children a huge part of that yesterday.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I tarried by the banks of river asylum, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The garment of beautiful yesterday fully changed into </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A flowing gown of depression and psychosis,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my mind’s eye is a distorted lens,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Life seemed worthless and meaningless,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">END IT, the only song I hear,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Medication and therapies my daily bread,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this limbo, a ray of light appears</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">… three years leave to remain, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With an irreparable mark for life.</span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-77189308803842856742011-10-04T18:12:00.002+01:002014-06-05T12:00:54.191+01:00Family Reunification - Nathalie's Story<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Like many asylum seekers and refugees, Nathalie fled her country in a hurry, having not seen her husband and young children for months. She had no idea where they were or whether they were still alive, but she worried about them for hours every day, especially her baby who was only a few months old when Nathalie was taken away to a prison and tortured and raped. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Months after she had escaped to the UK, and uncertain of her own future, Nathalie still had no idea what had happened to her family, but she gave us the name of a priest she had worked with in the Congo who we looked up on the Internet where we found an email address.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In early 2010, we were desperate to find someone who could confirm Nathalie’s story of what had happened to her in the Congo to help her claim for asylum. Our first contact with the priest was an email which arrived just in time to persuade an immigration judge that Nathalie’s case had credibility. Without the email form the priest in the Congo, Nathalie’s chances of staying in the UK looked very slim. The email arrived while she was in the immigration court to decide her future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While Nathalie’s claim for asylum in the UK was not resolved for another few months, we had also asked the priest if he knew the whereabouts of Nathalie’s family. For weeks we heard nothing and then in July 2010, the priest sent an email saying that he had found the family living on the border with Angola, in the south of the Congo, along with many other displaced Congolese refugees.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was many more weeks before the priest managed to arrange a time when Nathalie’s husband and children could come to his house at a time when Nathalie could contact them by telephone. Electricity cuts and problems with the Internet in the Congo didn’t help matters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The priest asked us to call his house at 3.30pm, Congolese time. It was now months after we first established contact with the priest and Nathalie now had leave to remain in the UK. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nathalie hadn’t slept for days because of the anxiety stirred up by talking to her family again. She came to Solace where I called the priest. She wanted me to speak to him first. She was feeling so anxious that she was shaking in the chair next to me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nathalie had worried that her children wouldn’t know who she was. By the time she spoke to the elder of the two, who was still only 5-years old, she was kneeling on the ground in front of me with her head in my lap.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nathalie asked him: ‘Did you miss me?’ ‘Do you know who I am?’ her son asks her if she is big or small – whether she is an adult or a child, in other words. He then asks her if she is going to bring him some black pudding that evening. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Black pudding touched a nerve with Nathalie because she used to bring her eldest boy black pudding, which he loved. Nathalie repeated the words ‘black pudding’ several times while sobbing in my lap.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Half an hour later the call ended with Nathalie’s head still in my lap, sobbing. She then drank four litres of water and sat down, exhausted, staring into space.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In September 2011, the family were reunited and living in bed and breakfast accommodation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can read Nathalie's back story in our latest Annual Review which you can download at www.solace-uk.org.uk</span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-68017256308487626532009-04-29T15:53:00.005+01:002014-06-05T12:01:07.860+01:00The Lives of Asylum Seekers<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1lyg3cDcDrUqpxN058doALnD5elZ5mNhpXovU31XdxHlmN8qqi0KYt7i8nTEdOg3bTRqZt4-9xF98XAzk5GmJ6tXH5pmDwWBH0ScNS9O8C_zwrCdX21OUHg-cdo475K1EFSuoCV3FhU/s1600/04.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk1lyg3cDcDrUqpxN058doALnD5elZ5mNhpXovU31XdxHlmN8qqi0KYt7i8nTEdOg3bTRqZt4-9xF98XAzk5GmJ6tXH5pmDwWBH0ScNS9O8C_zwrCdX21OUHg-cdo475K1EFSuoCV3FhU/s200/04.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482641021106980882" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 134px;" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solace was set up to provide counselling and advocacy to asylum seekers and refugees. A growing body of evidence revealed that their mental health needs were not being met by mainstream services, partly because of language barriers, but also because many health professionals felt ill-equipped to deal with the multiple traumas that many asylum seekers and refugees were suffering from. These findings were supported by research commissioned by Solace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the traumas facing asylum seekers that is rarely recognised is the way they are treated in Britain, not only by the media and by many of the people who live around them, but above all, by officialdom, as a result of government policies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A standard letter from the Borders and Immigration Agency (a Home Office agency) to an asylum seeker begins with the greeting ‘You are liable to be detained’, a threat that is carried out even when no crime has been committed. Like dangerous criminals, however, asylum seekers, including women with young children, are all too often raided in the middle of the night by the Police and sent to a detention centre without warning. Several of our female clients have experienced this treatment in the past year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The failed asylum seeker’s ‘crime’ is that the authorities do not believe them when they say they have been persecuted, or, to use the jargon of the courts, their ‘evidence is not credible’. For many asylum seekers, it is very hard or impossible to prove that they have been persecuted, especially when, as one client told us, he had to leave his country in a hurry, after government soldiers had tried to kill him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our experience of working with asylum seekers at Solace is that the inhospitable treatment they frequently receive here in Britain often exacerbates any mental health problems that they may already have. The vast majority of our clients have felt or continue to feel suicidal. Whilst many of them have benefited enormously from the service we offer, which makes their lives a little more tolerable, progress is all too often reversed by the heavy hand of officialdom as a result of punitive government policies.</span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-36861896568340175722009-04-29T15:04:00.008+01:002014-06-05T12:01:42.049+01:00Germain Naruhana's Story<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came to Britain in 2005 after escaping from prison where I had been sent with my sister for being involved in a demonstration against the Congolese government, which I helped to organise. My father had been beheaded by government officials for organising the demonstration and I went into hiding with my family, where we feared for our lives. We did not even attend our father’s funeral. A month later, my sister and I were captured by government troops and sent to a dark, stench-ridden dungeon. Every day I was in there, I was beaten with sticks, punched or kicked. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sister was regularly raped and on one occasion, when she was being raped in front of me, I tried to intervene, but I was beaten unconscious by the guards who hit me on my back with their rifle butts.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBJ08TeLygGE3iEck2MgSUJqDod0XwELVzCddV6n_G9EW1vQ1rUgZPZCBc3DDB-O1dG1O2bQstX8JvRJQ0ZTswCB1vcCODBOqq-pUGtwsow9XL-3KvFALucGiAeat9c5K2x4568QScslo/s1600-h/solgermain7.jpg"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBJ08TeLygGE3iEck2MgSUJqDod0XwELVzCddV6n_G9EW1vQ1rUgZPZCBc3DDB-O1dG1O2bQstX8JvRJQ0ZTswCB1vcCODBOqq-pUGtwsow9XL-3KvFALucGiAeat9c5K2x4568QScslo/s200/solgermain7.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330119550518487666" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 116px;" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came to Britain in 2005 after escaping from prison where I had been sent with my sister for being involved in a demonstration against the Congolese government, which I helped to organise. My father had been beheaded by government officials for organising the demonstration and I went into hiding with my family, where we feared for our lives. We did not even attend our father’s funeral. A month later, my sister and I were captured by government troops and sent to a dark, stench-ridden dungeon. Every day I was in there, I was beaten with sticks, punched or kicked. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My sister was regularly raped and on one occasion, when she was being raped in front of me, I tried to intervene, but I was beaten unconscious by the guards who hit me on my back with their rifle butts. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An Italian priest helped to release us from prison and he managed to get my sister and me on a plane to England. I still don’t know how he got us out of there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we arrived in England, I was in bad shape physically after my experience in captivity. My case for asylum was rejected because the authorities didn’t believe my story. Despite not being able to speak English at the time, I made an appeal against the decision, but on the day of the court hearing I was in hospital, vomiting blood, and suffering from internal bleeding as a result of the torture I had suffered in captivity.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Judge insisted I went to court, but seeing that I was the worse for wear, he sent me back to hospital. But the Judge also said that if I was going to be in hospital for a lengthy period, the appeal hearing would go ahead without me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was eventually called back to court to make my appeal several weeks later, I was still feeling unwell and I had no legal representation. I asked the Judge for more time to recover but he refused my request. With no knowledge of the English legal system and a poor grasp of English, my appeal was rejected. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The High Court rejected a further appeal by me and I then became a failed asylum seeker with a high risk of being detained or, worse, deported, which would mean almost certain death for me. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My life went from bad to worse. My sister, who as a minor, I had been legally responsible for, ran away. The consequences for me of her running away were dire. As a failed asylum seeker, no longer with any dependants, I was made homeless and penniless. I slept on friends’ floors; hid for four nights in St. George’s Crypt with an Iraqi asylum seeker, without anyone knowing I was there. The alternative was to sleep on the streets.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eventually, I was provided with a room in a house with other asylum seekers, but I was, and still am, a failed asylum seeker who could be detained or deported at any time. I still do not know where my sister is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two years ago, when I was using the Internet in a library in Leeds, I discovered that some soldiers had been to my Mother’s house and had interrogated her and two of my aunts about my whereabouts, but they did not know where I was. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My mother and her two sisters were then raped and brutally murdered. Then the soldiers took my wife and three children away to force me to come out of hiding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last two years, despite extensive enquiries, I have had no news of my wife and three children and I fear the worst. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was feeling completely depressed and suffering from anxiety. I felt life was not worth living. I desperately needed some help.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solace really helped me get back on my feet. The therapy helped me be strong again. It was not just the therapist who helped me but all the people working at Solace who gave me a lot of support and very helpful advice. I felt really welcome at Solace by everyone, so much so that I have recommended that friends of mine in the same situation as me come to Solace for help. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have made a real effort to integrate in Britain. I have learnt to speak English and passed all my English exams; I am actively involved in my local church and involved in many voluntary activities; I am studying an MA in Activism and Social Change at Leeds University. I am not allowed to enrol on the course officially because I am an asylum seeker, but I am happy that I am allowed to be a guest student. I would not be doing any of these things without the help I received from Solace. I cannot underestimate how much Solace has helped me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m still a failed asylum seeker and life is a struggle, sometimes a real struggle. I pray that I will be allowed to stay here, but whatever happens to me, I will always carry the burden of what happened to me and my family in the Congo.</span>Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5908589584491066399.post-88173496295045392532008-11-18T14:38:00.002+00:002014-06-05T12:02:09.760+01:00The Story of M<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I originally come from Gulu in the northern part of Uganda, which for the past twenty years has been subjected to violent armed struggle between the government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a militia group opposed to the government. The LRA has terrorised large parts of the country, particularly the north where I come from. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My husband was an army commander for the Uganda People’s Defence Force, which was set up by the government to defeat the LRA. My husband was involved in covert missions against the LRA and because the rebels never gave up without a fight, many of them were killed in the skirmishes. Often the LRA would retaliate by killing innocent civilians, including my parents who they killed in 1999. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One day in October 2002, one month after my husband had returned from a particularly gruesome encounter with the LRA, we were woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of gunfire and shouting. The next thing we knew, our front door was being kicked down by what sounded like a large group of angry men. My husband rushed out of bed with a pistol he had kept in a drawer by the bed. He confronted the group of men and as they hurled abuse at him I rushed into the room next door where my children were screaming. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was terrified. I pulled my children close to me and we crept into a wardrobe, cowering with fear. I heard a number of shots in quick succession and could hear the men screaming abuse and insults at our whole family and my husband in particular. I then heard loud thuds and thought they must have overpowered my husband and were beating him up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The mood in the room next door then changed and I heard someone ask ‘where is the woman?’. They soon found us and pulled us out of the wardrobe. They pulled me away from the children and hurled me on to the floor where they proceeded to rape me one after another. I do not know how many raped me, but I do remember my children sobbing behind their bed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Suddenly, all the men in the room panicked and ran out of the room - some of them treading on me in their rush to get out. I could smell smoke and knew our house was on fire. I cried to my children who were so petrified they could not move from behind the bed. I somehow gathered enough strength to drag them out of the collapsing building.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I later learnt that my husband had been shot in the head and that his body had been badly mutilated by multiple beatings from rifle butts. I also learnt that the attack was retaliation for the successful mission led by my husband the month before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the help of my husband’s best friend, I went into hiding with my two daughters in another part of Uganda. They kept asking for their father, but they were too young to understand what had happened. I was hoping that we would be left in peace, but it was a forlorn hope. Less than three months after my husband had been killed and I was raped, I returned to our new home one day after coming back from church and found our flat had been ransacked and all our belongings were strewn all over the place, including smashed crockery outside the flat. A badly shaken neighbour with a bruised face warned me that the LRA were looking for me and they had attacked him instead, hoping to get information out of him about our whereabouts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leaving your country for an unknown destination is traumatic. I did not know I was coming to Britain. It could have been anywhere as long as it was safe for me and my children. But as an asylum seeker in Britain, I soon discovered that it was far from being a warm and welcoming place and I was presented with more traumas. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No one seemed to understand the traumas I had faced and I was refused asylum in the UK. The threat of being sent back to Uganda made me suffer from terrible anxiety and my physical health deteriorated. While I was trying to recover from all my traumas, my house in Leeds was raided in the middle of the night by immigration officials in April 2005 and I was sent to Yarlswood Detention Centre for a month. It was a traumatic experience and reminded me of the time when our house was raided by the LRA rebels 18 months before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After I was released from Yarlswood, I was referred to Solace for counselling. I was struggling to cope with life when I met Anne, my therapist, at Solace. I had lost hope and life no longer had any meaning for me. Since going to Solace, my state of mind started to improve. The counselling really helped me. But then, in April 2007, I was raided at dawn for a second time and sent back to Yarlswood for four months with my children. Like the first time I was detained, I had committed no crime. It was a real setback for me and once again I lost all hope and was petrified of being deported. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Throughout my time in the detention centre, Solace worked with my solicitor to get me out. Anne came to visit me and offer me support. I applied for bail as that was the only way they would release me. Anne provided surety for me, which I really appreciated as there was no one else to help me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Solace has always been there for me, especially in the dark times. All the staff are welcoming, friendly and understanding and for me it is like a second home. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the beginning of 2008, while I was still being subjected to stringent bail conditions, I received a letter from the Home Office saying that I had been granted refugee status, which is a huge relief for me. It came completely out of the blue. Hopefully, my nightmare is over, but I am still going to Solace to try and heal my wounds.</span><br />
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<a href="http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army"></a><br />Solace Surviving Exile and Persecutionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16295986431633864435noreply@blogger.com0