Peterborough African Community Organisation has been working with Shpetim Alimeta, the Basis Project Organisational Development Officer in the East of England, since 2008.
Transcript
Shpetim Alimeta:
“My name is Shpetim Alimeta and I’m currently working as an Organisational Development Officer for the Basis Project. My work is to advise refugee community organisations based in the East of England, around governance issues, fundraising, financial management and project development – four key areas of organisational development.
“Currently I’m working with six refugee community organisations and one that I’ve been working with for more than a year is PACO – Peterborough African Community Organisation.”
Dan Cissokho:
“My name is Dan Cissokho. I’m a refugee. I came to this country in 2002 as an asylum seeker from Africa and then was dispersed to Peterborough and was then given refugee status. During my moving time I could not speak a word of English as I’m French-speaking and I did not know where to go or what to do. I became homeless, I became isolated but luckily I met nice people and I was able to get help and somewhere to stay and get into the system in the end.
“Because of that experience and because other people have been through the same experience, we thought it would be better if we could have a contact support group. So Peterborough African Community Organisation was set up primarily to be a contact support group.”
Clifford Muchemeyi:
“My name is Clifford Muchemeyi. Originally I’m from Zimbabwe and I’m the Chairperson of Peterborough African Community Organisation which is also a member of the Peterborough Community Groups Forum. PACO was set up in 2004 and our main objective is to be a support group for refugees and asylum seekers who are coming into Peterborough. Our long-term objective is to enhance and foster the good relationship that we’ve got with the local community through integration and cohesion.
“I’ve just popped in to do this interview – my day job is with the Royal Mail, this is all voluntary because I think it’s good to give back to the community.”
Caption: “At the end of 2008, with help from the Shpetim Alimeta from Basis Project, PACO gained funding from the Lloyds TSB Foundation to run a Community Radio Station.”
Dan Cissokho:
“This is a small studio. As you can see it has a mixer desk and automated software that we use to broadcast through the internet and we’ve got another computer here that is dedicated to streaming everything to a server through the Community Media Association, of which we are a member. Because it goes through the internet, it can be listened to anywhere in the world.
“We’ve got a CD player, so that people can bring their own CDs – whatever it is, whether it is in their own language or for their own audience. We’ve got the main microphone here, which is the presenters microphone and then we have a guest microphone that means we can have the local authority come and visit the project and tell about their work. And we can have all sorts of other guests – people who are organising events for example. So we’re offering things that you would never get from the BBC or from a commercial radio station.”
Natasja Cascalheira:
“My name is Natasja Cascalheira , and I’m the project manager at PACO for Peterborough Community Radio station. As part of the project we’re delivering ESOL [Enlgish for speakers of other languages] classes to members of the migrant communities and we also deliver to asylum and refugee groups. They come in here to learn language skills and we enhance their learning by teaching them radio production skills.
“They produce little programmes telling their own story. They can do it in their mother tongues and it’s then translated by the rest of the group into English and we then record it again in English. They are then taught how to download the recording onto the software and they edit it themselves. Then we come into the studio here for it to be broadcast.”
Shpetim Alimeta:
“We have come almost full-circle and are about six weeks away from completing our development plan. We started by planning the needs of the project and we are finalising soon a fundraising strategy. It has been a splendid working relationship and such a pleasurable working environment. They really believe in what they do and are connected with their own roots, culture and community. They are connected with society at large – they’ve got very good links – and this project has improved the links they had already with the local authority and other stakeholders.
The community radio project is a model project and I’m keen to keep it as a case study for other organisations to learn from. Because it helps the community to integrate and allows members of the African community and other communities to express themselves and by doing so they are gaining self-realisation and that is part of the process towards further integration.”
