Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers

30th July 2013

FINAL PROJECT REPORT

Project:

Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers

Copleston Road

Peckham

London

SE15 4AN

I A year has passed just as if it were one day. My voluntary service having come to an end makes me think of all that I have achieved, what I haven't yet accomplished and the experiences I have gained during this period of time. As my job involveddealing with people on an every day basis, it was possible to get immediate feedback on the quality of my work. There were manyoccasions whereby my clients expressed their empathy and appreciation for the role in which I played within the project. I've been particularly movedby witnessingclients who are extremely depressed and suffering from trauma and flashbacks, who never smile even at once at anybody, suddenly smileat me. Additionally, what made this even more special was that for much of the time I remained the only person whom they were smiling at.

1. Expectations and goals – results

As I remember my main expectations and goals were connected with my professional and personal development. I wanted to polish my English, gain experience in social work, take some useful courses s, explore other cultures and contribute to the project as much as I could. I feel like I managed to achieve most of these. After one year in England my English is not perfect but has definitely improved, as well as having more confidence to speak it.. I was provided with many courses developing my knowledge on asylum, the welfare system,producing the newsletter, and campaigning tools. Most importantly I took level 1 of the Community Interpreting Course which will give me more opportunities, especially on the British labour market. In addition to all of these skills, I have also gained experience in areas which I had not expected to. My knowledge of the immigration system in the UK, its public services and ways of getting advice on various issues have been greatly enhanced. I became an independent citizen of the UK and I can therefore relate to many situations that migrants may find themselves in.. I am extremely proud of how my skills have been enhanced by this experience and how many tasks which I found intimidating prior to starting this job now seem much less so. I was apprehensive about being asked to editt the newsletter, but I produced 6 issues, and on several occasions even wrote a few articles myself. I was slightly worried about being asked to look after children, but several times I took them to the playground and supervised them successfully. There were many tasks that I was afraid to do but with the help of my colleagues I became more confident and even did quite well with some of them. I don't think I would do anything differently if I had a second chance to start my voluntary service!

I want to underline that the most important achievement for me is that I was able to gain the trust and great sympathy of our clients and my colleagues, and to feel that I was doing something worthwhile. I have come to the conclusion, that although working with people may be stressful at times itis what I do best, and therefore I shall continue to seek out this type of work in the future. I find it greatly satisfying and it bring me immense amounts of joy. What I greatly appreciated about our clients was that I could always get feedback on my work from them, and thankfully it was positive.

I think my project is a very interesting ASF project. It gives one the opportunity to meet people from different cultures, get to their sometimes sad, but still very fascinating stories, and most importantly, get a taste for the diversity that this world offers. In addition to this, being a volunteer for this project is rarely boring as there is always something going on within it. I was participating in many workshops, day trips and events and helping to organise them. I went to BeeUrban to learn about bees and participate in candle making workshops and honey tasting, I took part in apple pressing workshop in Surrey Docks Farm and together with clients produced delicious juice, I've visited Kew Gardens, Brighton, house of Charles Darwin and many other places completely for free. I took part in many interesting celebrations like for Black History Month or Iranian New year. I had the best coffee in my life made by our Eritrean community. What an interesting year it was!

It's also worth highlighting the great support which I have received from ASF London office. In the first months Magda and then Daniel was always there for us ready to answer every question, regardless of how silly., They were also helpful in giving us clear instructions of what was going to be the next task. This greatly reduced any apprehension which we have had. ASF seminars and events were well-prepared and interesting experience. Well done and keep up the good work!

III Cross-cultural interfaces and reconciliation

Only now I realise how little knowledge I had about the UK before coming here. I only had the stereotypical image of boring, rainy country of noble people. I had no idea of its multicultural society making it an extremelyvibrant and interesting city to live in I would say to someone, that if you cannot afford to travel, then just come to London and you will have bits of the whole world in one city. The United Kingdom gives you the impression that every citizen has theirrights that should be respected and that everyone can get the advice or aid regardless their status. This made me feel howhospitable a country the UK is. I found British people very polite and helpful but also bounded to rules, as well as quite reserved. I was also able to see a slightly different perspective from the other side of Europe through the Polish community living in the UK. I had a chance to have a closer look at how this large Polish community are living in the UK and how the British are hosting their stay here.. I think it's quite impressive that in the UK, unlike in many other countries there much attention paid to the Poles, e.g. there are shelves with Polish products in the big supermarkets.

During our ASF seminars and from everyday chats, I could find out how common topics of the XX century history are being taught in Germany, Poland and United Kingdom. I found it very interesting to discover that there are so many different points of view on history. I found this experience very humbling, and gave made me contemplate how oneshould be aware that the knowledge you posses may not be the objective truth. History at school is taught from a very centric point of view and your own country is always in the central focus, but I have learnt that there is no such thing as one objective historical truth. There are as many histories, as individuals who have gone through them. Our discussions during the ASF seminars made me realise how importantreconciliation and atonement between countries and nations who have experienced conflict are.. I've learnt that there is no “good” and “bad” and nothing is black and white. What made realise it especially was when one of German group members gave a talk about her step grandmother's experience during the WW2. She was forced to leave her property, and during her escape suffered much cruelty from the Polish soldiers. We tend to instantaneously assume that all Germans were the ‘evil’ perpetrators, so hearing this story was pretty eye opening. Thismade me understand that there aren't always radical opposites, and not everything is as obviously good or bad, although this is often portrayed in simplified history taught at school

IV Trilateral Programme

Trilateral Programme is one of the pluses of being ASF volunteer. You can not only learn about Great Britain but also by being part of a Polish-German group, you learn about each other's cultures. We had many discussions during our seminars andexchanged points of view on so many historical and social issues, that made us significantly more educated and open-minded. I had the impression that Germans didn’t really have the knowledgeof what’s behind their eastern border, and I found it challenging to help them to explore my culture. We continuously found similarities between Poland and Germany during our informal chats which proved that reconciliation between young generation has been at the very least, partially achieved. We found out that in Germany as well as in Poland we have delicious bread and sausage and also that our cuisines are very similar, due to the base of potatoes, meat and cabbage.

V Prospects on the future

Voluntary service has changed me. I have become more aware of global issues, I have got to know other cultures even those very distant ones, I met many wonderful people from various backgrounds, I have also become a confident member of British society. My aim to gain discover what my future career path may be, partially came true. I've done community interpreting course and I would like to try to go for it in the future to contribute to my community living here in the UK. I have also gained professional administrative experience It altogether should help me to get a good job in the future. I benefited a lot from ASF/EVS programme and I would recommend it to all young people due to it's great opportunity to self-develop, improve language skills and gain experience of working abroad.

VI

Once again I would like to thank all institutions of which my stay here has been possible. First of all to the Polish, German and British branch of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace.A special thanks go to Agnieszka Zychowicz for letting me know about the recruitment for the project and professional introduction into ARSP, to Urszula Sienczak for recruiting me and organising seminars in Poland, to Magda Schmukalla and Daniel Lewis for leading and supporting me in the UK, to my hosting organisation Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers, especially to my mentor, always kind-hearted and helpful Gillian Reeve, to all the staff and volunteers for making me feel welcome and part of the team and also to my sponsors: German YMCA in London and EU program “Youth in Action”. In the end I would like to thank my family for their emotional support, and the fact that they didn't deny me another chance of emigrating abroad, seeing it as a chance for my development and for their support in my preparation for the voluntary service.Finally I would like to thank my friends who are always reliable, especially to Francesco, Asia M., Asia L., Maja, Ula, Anula and Krzysztof.