Client Stories

Amani

Amani is Sudanese and a graduate in Agricultural Economics from the
University of Cairo. She also has a Post Graduate Diploma and an MSc in
Development Planning. Amani has first hand experience of the UK asylum
process, having moved through it with her family. She is 40 and has three
children aged between 9 and 18 and was dispersed to Wales three years
ago, as her sister was living in Cardiff; however they sent her to Swansea,
some 40 miles away, and on a limited income. Visits are rare.

As a highly educated person, Amani has struggled with the restriction on asylum seekers not being allowed to work. She wanted to contribute to her new community whilst waiting for permission to work, and so sought the opportunity to undertake some voluntary work. Amani’s sister, Amira, had previously volunteered with SOVA in Cardiff and so as soon as SOVA opened the project in Swansea, Amani signed up.

Amani’s voluntary work with SOVA began with a training course: “The training was really useful and thorough. It explained my rights and responsibilities as well as those of SOVA and the clients and how
they interact. The training explained about confidentiality and setting ground rules and also explained about Health & Safety in the UK, which is a new thing for me.

“I do two things with SOVA: I am a mentor for clients and an interpreter in Arabic for Asylum Justice (a local group providing legal advice and representation and working towards charity status). I am working with two clients at the moment, they are women who are newly arrived in the city. I have assisted them by explaining where places such as the mosque, clinic and Halal food shops are in relation to their homes, as well as showing them how to use public transport. The general feedback from these women is that they are very happy with this service. When they were sent here they didn’t expect such assistance. One of them was previously living in London for more than six months and she was unsure about how to find help.

“For myself, I was frustrated doing nothing. I wanted to give something to the place where I will stay. I have started to do that – I’m getting inside the life here. When they don’t allow you to work, they stop your life. When they cut your way, you need to find another way. With SOVA I have done that.”

During the year The Swansea Refugee Project worked with 64 asylum seekers: 53 men and 11 women from countries as far apart as Pakistan, Poland, Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Turkey and from Africa. Support was provided around areas such as the translation of forms, accessing health care, registering children in schools, shopping for culturally appropriate foods, signposting for help with asylum claims and integration with faith groups.

SOVA’s work in Swansea and Cardiff has been instrumental in establishing a number of new developments such as the ‘Time Together Project’, a Timebank initiative focused on mentoring to help people feel at home in the UK; and the securing of European funding under Equal Theme B – Tackling Racism and Xenophobia in the labour market for a new pan-Wales partnership called Curiad Calon Cymru.