Transcript
George N'kashama
My name is George N'kashama and I’m the chair of the Leicester Congolese Community. Our organisation started in 2006 and in the beginning we struggled a little bit. But when we met Mo from the Basis Project in 2008 she really helped us. Our aim is to build a strong Congolese community in Leicester.
Modupe Odifa
I’m Mo Odifa the Basis Project Organisational Development Officer in the East Midlands based at Refugee Action.
I’ve arranged various training sessions for the group to help build their capacity. The management committee is very functional – this is one of the few groups where I have met every member of the management committee – I’ve met the Chair, the Treasurer, the Secretary and the two other members of the committee, which is quite pleasing.
Georges N'kashama
We are French speakers but our children born here speak English. So you’ve got that conflict between kids and Mums where they cannot communicate fully. This is some of the difficulties we’ve got. So we said to ourselves we need to bring together to raise awareness and integrate more into the system, helping people to learn more English and better skills.
Modupe Odifa
Funding is always an issue for any organisation. This group has received funding before and, where they needed support, they were very quick to ask for it particular in regard to reports to funders. I was able to help them with that and it was a big learning curve for them.
Jenny Kashale
My name is Jenny Kashale, I’m a member of the Congolese group. My role in this group is to bring all women together. We noticed that Congolese women have a lot of big issues and barriers. We speak French and we are not so confident – that’s why we like to stay at home watching TV programmes in French. So when Georges asked me if I wanted to do this I said yes. Now I will try to get in touch with Congolese women to talk about the group and show them they can approach us without fear or doubt.
Modupe Odifa
Another big issue, and a real barrier for them, is not having any premises – somewhere to hold meetings and meet members of their community. We’re working on linking them up with an established space as a first step and that will mean they can set up the advice and information service that they are planning.
There’s a lot of information dissemination that the group does – people call the Chair, the Secretary and want to know what’s going on. So starting an information and advice service is one of the first things they want to do and once we get the location they will be able to do that.
And it will build their confidence and boost their morale that they have an office of their own where they can have surgeries maybe two or three times a week and meet with community members. [Update: June 2010 – premises have now been secured!]
Jenny Kashale
We’d like to have premises where women can meet together once or twice a week so that we can talk about anything – the country, culture, English, French, anything.
Georges N'kashama
At the beginning I was a little bit hesitant, but recently I have become more optimistic. We had elections and I was chosen as Chair. And I think the future in this country, I think, is about community.
Alexis
My name is Alexis and my role in the community is to communicate with people if we have a problem. For example, if someone passed away here or in Africa my role is to send a message to our members. Also I help with the collection of money.
We’ve got now the group and we are confident that this group will work and everybody is now confident about this group.
Modupe Odifa
I always tell groups that sustainability is not so much about money sometimes, but it’s about being focussed and using what you have around you to achieve what you want. Funding comes in different forms. I’ve taught them about what funding in-kind is, and that is the biggest kind of funding you can ever get – and they’ve come to realise that.
Jenny Kashale
I’ve been here in the UK for five years and I was granted leave to remain last year. I have three kids. I have become more confident since I started to volunteer here at Refugee Action and I want to learn more in this country. I want to succeed in my life in this country. I would like, too, to have a voice in this country. Because I notice that all leaflets are in many languages but not in French. So we need to ask the council to put them in French – and I think I will achieve it.
