Hello! Here are the minutes from the meeting this week. We are managing to continue to do a few things in support of people seeking sanctuary and their supporters. A number of people are better off because of our efforts and now have Laptops, phones, tablets, phone top ups, hand sanitiser and at least some know that they are not forgotten. The drop in groups are still closed but some are making plans to open and some support is still getting out to people in the cities.
Please read the minutes and let us know if you can think of other things we can do to show welcome and support.
Please sign the petitions / below and see an appeal from Safe Passage for help to fund a legal review.
And please support John who is trying to raise funds for Side by Side with Refugees
Hope that you are having a good summer
All good wishes
Ailsa
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Minutes of General meeting on 5th August at 6.30 pm via Zoom
Apologies for absence,Janet Bodily, Adil Gatrad, Rowland Jepson, Vanessa Newton, Penny and Andrew Leonard, Claire Armstrong, John Anderson, Jane Dodds, Gaynor Hooper, William Powell, Alex Benfield , Sue Richards.Melrose East, Virginia Brown, Barbara and Reg Price
In attendance, Margaret and Pat Blake, Philip Oliver, Lynne Rogers, Lawrence Duffy, Ailsa Dunn, Brenda Charlwood, Tim Butler, Val Fraser, Mac McCarthy, Mike Gatehouse, Janet and Mark Robinson, Carola Tipton, Pauline Paterson,
Declaration of any conflicts of interest -none
minutes from the previous meeting of 6th July and matters arising- None except to note that Adil Gatrad sent his apologies for the meeting.
Update from the Chair- Margaret asked that we have a moment of silence to remember the people of Beirut who have been affected by the terrible blast. In addition we took the knee[ Virtually ] to show solidarity with Black Lives Matter. We send our good wishes to Alex for a good recovery from recent surgery.
1 Brecon Town council are seeking views about the memorial to Captain Phillips- we sent the following response and a number of our supporters were planning on attending the Town council consultation meeting that was held at the same time as this meeting.
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These are views expressed by some of our group including a Black African man who is seeking asylum.
It is hard to imagine anyone now approving of the slave trade but it was something that happened and we are not able to change history. Indeed those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat the mistakes. We do need to know about this terrible period as well as it's abolition.
People are seldom all good or all bad and that applies to actions as well. There are often silver linings to clouds. Our asylum seeking friend pointed out that without the European influence in Africa there would not have been Christianity, the system of mathematics or widespread literacy.
There is an illustration of a black man in the Doomsday book so we need to recognise that Britain has been a multicultural country for many centuries.
Since we can’t change history we need to acknowledge it and to give sufficient detail for people to understand the context. Captain Phillips was an infamous slave trader but he also gave money in Brecon for a lovely walk that enhances the town. Could the commemorative plaque provide some indication about how/where people can find out more about Philips' life and business?
Maybe It is worth seeking a memorial to other famous Breconians such as Dr Hoggan , to acknowledge the enormous role played by the Nepalese in Brecon and to ensure that we have a regular Black history feature In the museum during Black History month.
Maybe the town council when finances permit might like to consider the purchase or loan of a sculpture something like the Timothy Schmalz sculpture ‘Angels unawares ‘ that celebrates the waves of migration and the welcome needed for strangers. Details here
2 Newport are keen to start a sewing group to make masks -Thanks to Tools for Self Reliance Cymru who have given us 4 machines, and another 3 have been donated by Sean O'Donoghue, Seza Eccles and Sylvia Dunn. The machines together with some material and elastic will be taken to Newport by the weekend.
3 M Thanks to Ruth, M has a super new home. On Thursday 23rd July he was ‘offered’ accommodation [quite assertively] by the Home Office Accommodation provider in a dormitory sharing a room with 5 other people. He was able to decline.
Mike suggests that we write to both our MS and MP to give details and ask how this can happen when the Covid 19 Regulations state this is not acceptable.
4 many people have sent thanks for phone top ups, laptop donations and phones. The Grant money has nearly all been spent upon the equipment, the top ups and support for M.
5 We’ve taken advantage of Lockdown gradually being lifted . Furniture went to Otis and others in Swansea.
Bikes and donated items from Hay Festival were taken to Swansea and Newport
360 of 150ml bottles of Hand sanitiser and some re-usable masks for distribution by Unity in Diversity were taken by Mac and 300 bottles taken to Newport Gap Sanctuary by Ailsa.
Generous donations of household goods from Seza and Michael and Mark and Sylvia will help people granted refugee status to move comfortably when accommodation becomes available. Thanks to Sylvia Dunn for use of her garage to store these items.
6 Mask making continues and If you want 3 lovely handmade re-usable masks for £10 I can refer you to someone who can help. .Janet has offered to share her expertise with Claire and the women's group in Newport. Over £1000 has been taken in donations for the masks.Another supporter shared with me an idea for manufacture of items that she suggests we could make and sell in Quality gift shops… more later.
7 Bison Milambo has a painting in the latest Virtual exhibition by Glasbury Arts.
8 Our Information boards are in Brecon Cathedral. Thanks to the Dean for his support. He also offers us the use of the Cathedral grounds for Fundraising activities. When we are more able to move around we could have a stall selling masks and other hand made items? Other ideas welcomed.
9 We've had no response from our MP to our recent emails.
10 Treberfydd House has kindly offered us a day for HBTSR supporters to meet in a socially distanced way in their beautiful gardens. However few supporters have accepted the invitation. We will thank David and Carla for the generous offer but explain that many of our supporters are not going out much at present. Several people did visit during July and said how lovely the gardens looked.
Treberfydd have raised £300 for HBTSR from donations instead of seeking payment to look around.
Aa Welcome
1 Welcome days
Realistically it seems very unlikely that we will be in a position to be able to restart welcome days for the foreseeable future, but we are doing other things to help people to feel welcome. Mike suggests that we consider what else can be done. Possibly it may be worth having requests in our communities for toiletries and food that can be taken to drop ins when they open up again. We've always had such positive responses about the value of welcome days in helping people to feel hopeful, to enjoy some normality , to have a break, meet friends that it is a shame if we can't set this up again in the future.
2 holiday cottage- Rowland has offered the cottage when it is not rented out and we will be very grateful to use this for M if he still needs somewhere to stay. It seems unlikely that we can use it for families this winter due to risks of travelling and the work of making the cottage Covid Safe. Margaret asked that we record our thanks to Rowland for looking after M for 19 weeks and that we thank Ruth for providing M with a home now.
3 Courts support- Thanks to Neil S for drafting the leaflet which is now on the website halfway down the resources page. If we do attend Courts with an asylum seeker our role is as morale support and not to advise or speak to the court
4 collecting goods _Drop in centres and SHARP are still closed - Mac Reports that UID may re-open in September. Newport are starting to offer some support sessions and their bike maintenance is now off site but can be done in a socially distanced way.
Laptops and computers are always welcomed as are Kitchen equipment and utensils. None of the groups want used clothing at the moment.
Bikes - about 20 bikes were sent in July to Newport and Swansea and John may have taken an additional 2 down in the last week to Newport. .
Knitting group- No report
Face masks- Rachel, Janet, Gaynor and Kumari have raised over £1000 so far and have agreed that they will make some for us to send to Swansea and Newport. They'd like to record thanks to Neil and Cate for their speedy expertise in providing labels for the bags.
Hand sanitiser- Was bought and we hope the bottles can be refilled. No response to inquiries about donations from Penderyn or Carex but a very kind donation of money from Timeout Church allowed us to buy 700 bottles of sanitiser and a few facemasks.
5 Other ways to welcome or support. ideas welcomed, please
Bb Money
1 Income- Facemask donations in July -£1062, Donations from Supporters £1747 - which includes generous donations from TImeout Church and donations in Memory of David Witte.
2 Fundraising activities - Mask Making £1062 and Treberfydd gardens who have raised £300.
3 Expenditure - £3600!! Phone top ups £400,[Report from Kelly, volunteer buying the top ups. This update covers the period 10/6 to 28/7 incl.
21 people were new fund recipients 55 people had received top ups in previous months.
75 top ups @ £10 each 1 @ £15
referrals from 1 - HBTS4R 8 - UiD 8 - EYST 13 - Congolese Devlt P 18- SASS 28 - BW ]
Legal help £600 [ agreed to pay legal assistance but not the application cost]
Mobiles, Tablets and clothing grants via Welcome to Swansea- £253
Lap tops £910
Level 3 beauty equipment.- £200
Handwipes, sanitiser and soap-£967
Laptop £150
miscellaneous- £122
4 Requests for new expenditure - we need to continue to fund phone top ups and to make up the hardship fund to £1000 again. { agreed by email after the meeting as forgot to ask during-}
C Information/ Education/ petitions
1 petitions -Please Stop refugees being made homeless during this Covid 19 crisis - a petition to sign here .
2 Advocacy- i release of Lift the Ban coalition report see here. Please consider sharing on social media
ii The Home Office's treatment of requests for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and vulnerable adults to be reunited with their family members in the UK is unlawful.
Their recently published policy document on how to process family reunification requests is a huge threat to the rights of refugees in Europe. In their new policy:
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The Home Office are not doing their part to establish whether family members are related;
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They are telling decision-makers that when they fail to properly consider a child’s case in time, they should refuse it in order to avoid responsibility;
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They are not adhering to the UK’s human rights obligations; and
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They are failing at their duty to consider the best interests of the child.
Most importantly, the new policy will lead to the Home Office making wrong decisions, putting vulnerable children’s lives at risks. That's why Safe passage is taking the Home Office to court - They are calling for a judicial review to prove that the policy is unlawful and that it must be withdrawn.They need our help to raise £17,500 to cover the Home Office fees in case they lose. Without that money, they won't be able to fight the judicial review and the rights of unaccompanied child refugees will be put at risk. You can Donate here
iii The refugee council celebrates the 1951 Refugee convention and helping people since 1951 by sharing its archive
iv The Joint Council for The Welfare of Immigrants is celebrating winning its legal action to stop the Home Office to stop using its racist algorithm to sift visa applications!
v 38 degrees are asking for signatures on a petition to improve the compensation scheme for Windrush survivors and family members
3 social media- Facebook 659 members and 15 posts since early July. Twitter 887 followers many tweets, Instagram. Email 475 subscribers 3 mailings since last meeting.
4 admin/policies. none new
5 IOM sessions . Meg from Powys County Council let us know about learning sessions of about 2.5 hours on Refugee information focusing on country-specific information (daily life, infrastructure, demographics, culture, etc.) and conditions in the region as a refugee. Is anyone keen to participate in one of these?
I've had one response so far. These are online courses but i doubt they will put this on for 1 person.
Any other business -
Virtual Brecon Jazz- John Anderson has arranged for Barbara Jungr to put on a concert in aid of Side by Side with Refugees and One Brecon. Please see details here
Date of next meeting
Wednesday 9th September
Thereafter meetings will be on the 1st Wednesday of each month to allow City of Sanctuary to set the Zoom meetings up.
We anticipate Zoom Meetings until next spring probably....
so 7th October, 4th November, 2nd December.
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