General meeting on 3rd June 2020 at 6.30 pm via Zoom
Apologies for absence Janet Matthews, Jane Dodds, Shaun and Alma O'Boyle, Vanessa Newton, Jonnie and Tina Hill, Barbara and Reg Price, Maria Duggan, Trish Fretten, Mike Gatehouse, Maggie Vicuna, Jan Shival,
In attendance, Margaret And Pat Blake, Lawrence Duffy, Ailsa Dunn, Claire Armstrong, Janet Bodily, Penny and Andrew Leonard, Philip Oliver , Lynne Rogers, Hilary Bright, Valerie Bradley, Thanu Hettiarachchi,Pauline Paterson, Rachel Giaccone, Melrose East, Tim Butler, Valerie Fraser, Sue Richards, Mac McCarthy, Adil Gatrad, Carola Tipton, Maureen Douglas, Virginia Brown.
Declaration of any conflicts of interest- None
minutes from the previous meeting received and matters arising- none
Update from the Chair- previously circulated but included here for completeness
1 Welcome days as mentioned before, it seems very unlikely that we will be able to hold a welcome day for some time -so we need to think of other ways to show welcome and support.
2 holiday cottage- Thanks to Rowland, M [ a refused asylum seeker with no recourse to public funds] is still living in the holiday cottage. He has been supported [ and befriended] by many of our usual Holiday Cottage team [and others] supporters have paid for twice weekly delivery of home cooked meals and Hbtsr give him a small grant of £20/week.
3 courts support awaiting leaflet describing the role of court supporters which we can put onto our website.
4 collecting goods currently this is not happening....Sue may try to access the store to see if anything needs attention.
Bikes - 8 went to Swansea just before lockdown and recently Sean was asked for a bike for a man who needed it for his new job.
5 the boys from Newport who were burgled are now staying in Cardiff but continue to have support from Newport Sanctuary who are holding the money for the boys and will help them buy items they want when they can travel/ shop.
1 Income- In addition to a number of very generous individual anonymous donations,[ for which many thanks!] we have been successful in securing 2 grants in the last week. One from the Gibbs Family Trust that is specifically to help with education [thanks to Mike for suggesting this] and one of £4000 from Community Foundation Wales Corona virus Resilience fund that is for phone tops ups, MIFI if needed and for hardship requests linked to the Covid19 crisis.[ thanks to Emma B for suggesting this] Our bank balance is now just over £10,000 of which half is specifically for court support and £1000 for education.
2 Expenditure- since we last met we have spent £1000 on Phone top ups. We have also spent over £1000 on hardship related requests and top up to the Nappy/hygiene fund looked after by Maria N . Thanu let me know that because of the cancellation of two holiday stays she has monies[ about £130] remaining. What would we like her to do with this?
see letters between Fay Jones and HBTSR. We will follow up with Fay as we await answers to a number of our questions/letters.
Chairs Report accepted
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continued Agenda
Comments on Courts Support- Philip will check with Neil if he is happy for the leaflet about courts support to go onto the website.
Thanu updated us about the situation in Swansea where none of the drop in groups are running. She attends a regular Zoom Service providers Covid Forum meeting that aims to coordinate support . Food banks and supermarkets are supplying food to people, Schools are supplying tablets, computers to pupils and mobile wofi will follow for pupils. Unmet needs for people studying but not in school.
Aa Welcome
1 Welcome days-
It is most unlikely that we will be able to offer any welcome days this year but when drop in support groups restart we can re-evaluate our role.
For the record these were the previously proposed dates June 7th June Craig Y Nos picnic 21st June Talybont. July 11th Talgarth - Football team and Talgarth school. August 16th Brecon 30th Llangynidr show- ? venue for a few people. September 26th Treberfydd house October 18th Crickhowell High School
November Penpont
2 holiday cottage- Nil to add. We will continue to support M until such time as lockdown ends and Rowland is able to let the house.
3 Courts support- Home office is dealing with many appeals using paperwork only and Newport Sanctuary reported that some acceptances are coming through and leave to remain cards are being delivered.
4 collecting goods _ Sue was able to visit the store today and check that nothing was out of date or in anyone's way. The meeting wanted to record thanks to Joyce and Nigel at Ty Mawr Lime for their continued support.
Drop off/ store and transport groups -nil to report
Bikes - 8 went to Swansea just before lockdown
Knitting group- nil to report
5 Other ways to welcome or support.
a Pauline and Rachel outlined an idea about making face masks using a pattern that Rachel has that could be sold to raise monies. Thanu agreed to discuss with the people she knows on the women's group but they are not meeting up and many don't have sewing machines and many will have children to home school. However there was interest amongst some of HBTSR group in taking this forward- We could sell the masks amongst our friends and family once people start venturing out. Contact Rachel for details if interested, please rachelgiac@hotmail.co.uk
b Adil asked that we try to get more feedback from people seeking sanctuary about what they need and want. E.g as things start to re open maybe we can find items and take them down. Need to be aware that certain items might be vectors of infection.
c Continue with Phone Top ups as these do allow people to engage with their online lessons.
Bb Money
1 Income- Bank statement awaited but since February meeting we have had £2,700 income - mostly from supporters and a donation of £120 via Paypal Giving from Hay Festival. [ We may have several more donations via Paypal Giving as several members have asked via Facebook for birthday donations to be sent to us ] We await the monies from the Community Foundation Wales and The GIbbs Famly Trust and currently the bank balance is just over £12,000 but £5000 is ring fenced for Courts/ Asylum related legal matters and £1000 is for education
2 Fundraising activities - recent- donations via supporters and seeking grants.
3 Expenditure since February - £3,900- with £1000 for Phone top ups, Hardship find £650 including paying a fine for allegedly spitting [ if not paid the man might have been imprisoned] Nappy Fund administered by Maria N - £400. Weekends pre-lockdown £280. Payment /loan to help set up a business in Sierra Leone, Bike Accessories £200, Syrian families a donation of £200 towards costs of 5 laptops.,buses £650
4 Requests for new expenditure- Continue Phone top ups, Possibility of Mobile Wifi with the grant monies
Thanu aware that we operate a hardship fund and can ask in consultation with Wayne for help for individuals.
discuss with partners what else we can do to help. An idea from Newport is to give people £20 gift vouchers for appropriate supermarkets so they can buy what they want... discussion concluded that we could explore this including working out how these could be fairly distributed - consider up to £1000 for this.
Thanu confirmed that even people who are self isolating have to go out to get cash. Swansea Asylum Seekers Support are running a telephone support via volunteers and they may pick up needs that they can share with us. Unity in Diversity are actually visiting people and may also be picking up ideas. Mac mentioned that they have a Zoom Meeting coming up so we can ask their views. [SEE above]
C Information/ Education/ petitions
1 petitions - Please do follow these up
also several members wrote to say Fay Jones MP is on a Parliamentary Committee reviewing the Domestic Abuse Bill, and Amnesty International has an email campaign to ensure that protection is extended to cover migrant women.
2 Advocacy- Dubs , Asylum support, detention see letters.
Any ideas for Refugee week? People to think about this, please.
3 social media- Facebook 645 members and 33 posts since 1st April. Twitter 879 followers many tweets, Instagram. Email 468 subscribers 5 mailings since last meeting.
4 admin/policies.Please note Phone top up policy
Any other business - Write to thank Kelly for volunteering to buy the phone top ups. Thank Ty Mawr for the use of the store.
Date of next meeting
MONDAY 6th July . 6.30 via ZOOM
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Petitions
Petitions
City of Sanctuary groups have a unique and valuable contribution to make by sharing creative responses to continuing to build a culture of welcome. City of Sanctuary has a new page on Covid19
and actions that can be done from home
Some of us have written to our Mp asking about what will happen now Dubs route for unaccompanied minors has been discontinued and also about the need to increase the asylum support rates.
This link takes you to the latest newsletter from City of Sanctuary
from Asylum matters
1. Ongoing advocacy
Campaigners keep up the pressure on the Home Office to raise asylum support rates
Organisations and individuals continue to write to their MPs calling for an urgent uplift to asylum support rates so people seeking asylum are able to keep themselves safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Over 5,377 people have already written to their MPs via Refugee Action’s e-action. Docs not Cops and Medact health surcharge campaign
Docs Not Cops have produced a great video calling for the Immigration Health Surcharge to be scrapped for everyone. You can support by retweeting, and sharing the video through your channels including on Facebook.
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