The Refugee Employability (REP) programme hosted an event on Wednesday 19th June at the Circle in Sheffield to mark Refugee Week, and also highlight the positive impact the programme has had on refugees across Yorkshire since it began last September.
The event opened with Service Managers’ Kate Liddle and Naveed Ahmed (service managers), talking about REP and the highlights the programme has achieved so far. It was then the United for Ukraine team’s turn, who discussed their journey of supporting Ukrainian refugees and what more can be done to help them.
The event then tapped into the EmbRace EDI Network webinar and heard from Employment Advisor Mohammad Adeel and his lived experience as a refugee. After lunch, we heard from Employment Advisor’s Goitom Negash and Ali Chaman-Ali (both with lived experiences as refugees), about how they navigated their way through a new country and how they use this experience to support their service users.
The final panel was from ESOL tutors, Homaira Ghaznawi and Aseel Al-Rawas, who gave an overview of how they equip service users not only with the language of the workplace, but also with the knowledge of British culture to help them to integrate smoothly into society. Finally, to top the event off, there was a flag quiz with a prize on offer for the winning team!
REP received some great feedback, with the stories having a massive impact on the Home Office who were in attendance. Well done to the team for putting on a fantastic event!
And that’s not all for REP that week! The team have also been really busy getting involved with Eid ul-Adha (which also happens to be the same week as Refugee Week). Some REP colleagues attended the Eid in the Park Event in Rotherham on Monday, the event saw around 2,000 people attend from the local community, with activities including Eid Prayer and children’s games.
