Occasional Victories |
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Life as a refugee support volunteer with it's occasional victories and frequent defeats. Occasional Victories is a place for links, news, rants and raves about Refugee related issues.
If you would like to contribute just drop me an email at carigeen(a)yahoo.com
Archives
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2003-05-09
The "Worthy Poor" and "Genuine Asylum Seekers" An elderly lady who does good work running a charity in town phoned yesterday. Can I do an interview preparation session for M, a Nigerian woman she works with? I agree of course, that's what I do all the time. Then she starts telling me what a genuine person the applicant is, and how she is always polite and helpful, never any trouble, unlike some others she could mention! M really deserves help. I'm afraid I shocked her by saying that I did not care about these things, everyone who asked for help got help. In fact those without good language and social skills needed help more than the others. There are a lot of echoes of the Victorian debate over the 'worthy poor' in the treatment of asylum seekers. Seem that the Supreme Court ruling was not everything the minister would like it to be! Irish Times Article - Court rules Nigerian was detained illegally 2003-05-08
The war in Angola has been over for a year.... since Jonas Savimbi was killed. Things are still very difficult there, no supplies and the place alive with landmines. Last week we helped a friend get a package to her sister in Huambo. Toiletries, shoes, clothes, books and photographs. I've to hand it to DHL though, the people we talked to are good. When they heard our story they reclassified the package as humanitarian aid and made phone calls to get us the absolutely cheapest freight costs. It turned out to be less than half the original quote. We tracked it on the web and on Friday got the message that it had safely arrived. I hope it's what is needed, things are bad there still. An 18-year old nephew was killed in an explosion four months ago. 2003-05-07
Everyone should have a mad uncle at family events! And I'm the resident mad uncle at lots of immigrant events around this town. Friday was the wedding of A and M, an Angolan couple. I'd spent the morning attending a very worthy workshop and seminar in the county town were we had solemnly discussed the importance of networking between professionals in the social care area. As the only volunteer present I'm afraid that I got lost in the finer points of who was to receive minutes and calls to meetings! Then to the ceremony in the registry office. Everyone was in their, very stylish, best. Bride, groom, granny, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles were all present. Even the little kids were in white dresses and mini black tuxedos. The bridal party arrived in the only white stretch limosine I've ever seen in this country. The registry office is a miserable place though. It's in a prefabricated hut at the back of the dental clinic on the hospital site. It is just a large room with a standard office desk, 20 chairs and a vase of dead flowers in the corner. The registrar did not try too hard either. He was dressed in a sports shirt and a jacket, no tie. He checked through the paperwork, pronounced the couple man and wife and it was all over in 10 minutes. The party was in Granny's house, lots of old friends from the early days on the site. Lots of music, food and dancing. No Nigerian red pepper soup though! We finally snuck off home at about midnight, I'm told the party went on until 6:00! |