Amnesty Internationl Southwark Group

* SUNDAY 6th AUGUST: Southwark Amnesty stall at Carnaval del Pueblo at Burgess Park
Check out the link (left) for photos and an account of the day from our Treasurer, Steph

* SATURDAY 8TH JULY: Southwark Amnesty stall at the Southwark Park Event
Check out the link (left) for photos and an account of the day from our Secretary, Carol Cooper

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Exhibition: London
Tim, our Colombia co-ordinator, went to the opening event of a very interesting Amnesty photographic exhibition. It is called "In The Crossfire" and the images have all been taken by photo-journalists in trouble-spots around the world. They depict how ordinary people are suffering because of the arms trade. It is part of Amnesty's efforts to bring some kind of sanity to the international commerce in weaponry. Two statisics from the exhibition stuck in my mind; there are 70 million AK47 assault rifles across the globe and enough bullets to kill every human being twice. The photos will be on display at The Bargehouse next to the Oxo Tower for the next month. The venue is on the South Bank between London Bridge and Waterloo.

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The Refugee week conference at Amnesty International
Tuesday 3rd October.
This was the first conference to be held aiming to inform about refugee week, taking place in June next year. It was organised so that participants should take an active part in the conference by joining discussions and workshops. Time was also given to let participants talk to each other, to create networks and exchange experience and knowledge.

Participants came from various organisations such as H & F Refugee Forum, Merton Asylum, African Refugee Community, Community Arts North West, Migrant help line, UNHCR, Home Office, Save the children , Music for change, to mention a few. Most participants came from London but some also from Wales and Scotland. 

The conference started off a bit delayed and was opened by chair Tim Finch who talked about the goal for refugee week next year. He underlined several times that the focus should be on the positive things refugees bring to the UK. It would be easy enough he said to claim that the refugee policy in UK, for example, detention centres and the asylum process is very bad and that lots need to be done from the government to change this negative situation. He also said that refugee week is all about the local events going on in cities and small towns all over the country. This conference should therefore be an arena for networking so that people could go home to their towns and start planning for the Refugee week in their local community.

Then Refugee week UK coordinator Almir Koldzic talked about his experience of coming to the UK as a refugee in 1999. He said that his first meeting with Refugee week made him realise that he did not need to justify his presence in the UK. In fact he and all other refugees have so many talents and skills to contribute. He said that the most important thing is to create new representations of refugees and not fulfil stereotypes. He gave an example that instead of showing traditional dances, which people are expecting anyway, we should highlight how refugess are represented in economics, health etc.
Slogan: Different pasts, shared future.

New for next year is that Refugee Week has a new website: www.refugeeweek.org.uk

Louise Irwin from Scottish refugee council then talked about the Refugee Week event in Glasgow last year. She described that their strategy had been to build on existing projects to get as many people and organisations as possible involved in the Refugee Week event.

Gaynor Atkin from Peterborough City Council then talked about last year’s event and shared experience about their strategies creating an event in Peterborough that has been called the asylum dumping area in the media. She talked about the importance of seeing peoples' capacity. Funding should not be an obstacle when you want to organise an event. They had also managed to arrange the Refugee Week with small economic means. They persuaded Marks & Spencer to put their posters in their window. Starbucks also let them have t-shirts and leaflets inside the shop. She said it is good to create new links by involving the community. Her wise words: Remember your aim, not everything is possible, not everyone wants to be involved, the press may end up on your side and remember that it might be difficult to get volunteers

Morning workshops: 3 to choose from:
Fundraising
Partnerships
Education

I joined the one on Education. Facilitator was Doug Noble from music for change. The arts council funds music for change. He showed a video from music for changes involvement in Refugee Week in Peckham and Stockwell last year. We were then divided into small groups and discussed about how to involve young people in this event, how to measure a change of attitudes. Unfortunately it was very stressful and we had no time for real conclusions.

The lunch break was also used for networking.

In the afternoon Milica Robson from the arts council started off by talking about their cooperation and involvement with Refugee Week.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on workshops. As in the morning there were 3 to choose from:
Regions
Media
Promoting Refugee Week

I choose Media. Facilitator was Tim Finchley, former political journalist and now working for the refugee council.
We got some situations were we should try to come up with headlines that would attract the public to attend Refugee Week. This was also very stressful since it was the end of the day and the time schedule was delayed.

All together it was a good conference even though the delay in the morning created a stressful atmosphere and we had to rush through the programme. Many participants asked for more time to discuss and reflect in small groups. Lots of materials were provided and that seemed to be appreciated .As a foreigner I learned a lot myself about the situation in UK regarding refugees, asylum and detention.


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