The Very Definition of “Not Glamorous” Here is a collection of recent stories we found in the news. We want to share them with you, as they reflect the experience and barriers our clients and case workers face each day, and we’d like them to be more prominent in the news. UK asylum seekers at […]
I had met Liz Curry (our volunteer coordinator) sometime ago; we were both trying to improve our Spanish at weekly classes. I was interested in what Liz told me about the work Refugee Action – Colchester was doing locally, but it wasn’t until last summer that I felt motivated enough to follow it up. There […]
Gerald is an elderly Somalian client. He has been in the UK for 13 years and became appeal rights exhausted after he failed to attend his appeal hearing, because he was so scared of the intrusive questions – they wanted to ask him about his family and what he witnessed when they were killed. He […]
This has been an active few months even though it has been punctuated by unseasonal weather and ongoing uncertainty about Covid regulations. However RA-C , aided by Community 360 has helped to to get many of our clients and volunteers vaccinated and we all feel a bit more safe. Work at the Big Garden has […]
We have welcomed new residents to Colchester in the last week as it is now a dispersal location from the Home Office for Asylum Seekers who are in the National Asylum Support Service (NASS), and are waiting for an Asylum claim to be decided. There are currently 5 houses occupied in Colchester, each one housing […]
Panorama is the world’s longest running TV current affairs programme. First broadcast in 1953, it still has a prime-time slot and is shown throughout the world. There have been a number of notable programmes over the years exposing corruption in football, contaminated blood in the NHS, abuse in care homes and, most famously of all, […]
Although the circumstances this year have made it difficult for many of Friends Not Foes’ typical activities to take place, the group has fortunately still been able to help out in a variety of ways. For example, the homework club has been taking place weekly at the college and has been enjoyed by volunteers and […]
The term ‘modern day slave trade’ provokes strong and emotional responses and yet we tend to see it as something that only happens in big cities, far away from us. Sadly, that is not the case as our caseworkers know how this is happening today on our doorstep. Modern slavery is comprised of human trafficking […]
We would rather know there wasn’t a need for foodbanks and that all our fellow citizens where able to support themselves and their families without them. However, as this is not the case, we are proud to offer this service to support our clients with the international food they need to cook their culture’s dishes […]
Did you know hate crime is ‘any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic’? Did you know that evidence of the hate element is not a requirement? It would be enough if another person, a witness […]