Last week we began the first sessions of our Mediabox and Inter Act project with City Academy. At the start of the week we met with AS level media students who will form the core of the group to introduce ourselves and find out how they would like to be involved.
Welcome Lunch
On Thursday we took 12 of the students to the Bristol Refugee Rights drop in centre for an introductory lunch and a chance to meet some of the young refugees who get support from the centre.
Bristol Refugee Rights is a fantastic community organisation that provides a place of welcome for asylum seekers and refugees to meet and get support. They also campaign for human rights and support refugees and asylum seekers to play a full part in the life of the wider community.
Many of the students were a little overwhelmed when we arrived due to the sheer number of people who were there for the lunch. Food was provided by
Awaz Utaoh, a local South Asian community organisation, and we were treated to an amazing selection of curries, dhal and rice dishes. When the lunchtime rush was quieting down we sat outside where the students were greeted by many of the refugees and asylum seekers who were keen to answer their questions and welcome them.
The afternoon took a slightly surreal turn when the props for the drama workshop taking place in the afternoon arrived.We were suddenly talking to people in amazing hats, masks and animal head dresses which the students found very amusing. This brightened the atmosphere and helped to put everyone at their ease.
It was a great afternoon and we hope that the students may be inspired to look at refugee and asylum issues for some of their social action project in the next few months.You can check out the rest of the photos from the day on our Flickr page
here.
