Bevan Celebrates Refugee Week
Bevan are celebrating Refugee Week 2023 by encouraging patients and staff to take part in a series of ‘Simple Acts’ to stand united with refugees and asylum seekers. Refugee Week is the world’s largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Founded in 1998 in the UK and held every year around World Refugee Day on the 20 June, Refugee Week 2023 is the 25th anniversary of the festival.
‘Simple Acts’ is a campaign to encourage people to do small things to help achieve Refugee Week’s vision for refugees and asylum seekers to be able to live safely within inclusive and resilient communities, where they can continue to make a valuable contribution and Bevan will give staff and patients the opportunity to participate by planting a sunflower, sharing their migration story or help to breakdown myths about refugees and asylum seekers.
Bevan will be distributing 500 packets of sunflower seeds with translated instructions on how to plant and grow a sunflower featuring the quote ‘Sometimes you might feel buried but in factual fact you have been planted’.
“Sometimes you feel like you have been buried but in actual fact you have been planted.”
The packs will be distributed to staff and patients in Leeds, Bradford and throughout West Yorkshire and to anyone who attends the Wellbeing Centre. The Wellbeing Centre is located in the centre of Bradford and each of the weekly classes and events will be themed around Refugee Week. The timetable includes Yoga, Bumps and Babies, Young Persons Drop In, Welcoming Spaces and Homeless Drop-in sessions. Check out the timetable to find out what’s on when and how you can get involved.
Bevan are also encouraging people to share their migration stories. Everyone, no matter how small, has a story of migration in their family. It may be from one city to another or many generations ago. We are asking people to share their stories with us so we can build an archive of migration stories which shows that migration is something that unites rather than divides us. People will be able to submit their stories to us online or in person throughout Refugee Week.
“Everyone has a Migration story. They are something that unites and not divides us.”
Our final Simple Act is to spread the myth busting word wherever we can and encourage our staff and patients to do the same. There can be a lot of misinformation around refugees and those seeking sanctuary and our myth busting road show will sort fact from fiction. The messages are co-produced by those with lived experience and will be shared on our social media channels. Please do share on your platforms too. We’ll also be on the road at the following places:
- Monday 19th June 9.30 – 12.30 The Broadway
- Thursday 22nd June 11.30 – 1.30pm at Keighley College and then 4 – 6pm for Faith lunch
- Friday 23rd June 9.30 – 12.30 at The Broadway
Speaking about Bevan’s Refugee Week activities CEO, Emma Perry said;
“Many of our patients and staff have lived experience of being a refugee and we chose these three simple acts to allow them the opportunity to stand in solidarity with refugees in a way that suits them. They may choose to share their migration story with us or to break down prejudices by re-sharing our myth busting across their social media. Or they may wish to plant a sunflower. Sunflowers represent hope, strength, optimism and resilience – all characteristics shared by people who leave their homeland to resettle elsewhere. Compassion is a central theme to Refugee Week 2023 and is also a key Bevan value. Growing a sunflower is a symbol of growing compassion, for ourselves, for our communities and especially for those fleeing war, famine, weather events or extreme poverty.”
Emma Perry, CEO, Bevan