We met with Cheshire East Council on 22 of February to help advise on the resettlement of new Syrian families that are moving there under the UN program. We shared our experiences in working with Syrian refugees and detailed some best practice of welcoming and integrating families, as well as challenges and how to overcome them.
In response to numerous and long-standing complaints from members of the Syrian community regarding the BBC’s coverage of the situation in Syria, Rethink Rebuild Society released a report on 21 February titled ‘Altering the Trends: The BBC’s Biased Reporting on the Syrian Conflict’.
We joined 37 Syrian civil society organisations to demand greater involvement by the UN in the upcoming ceasefire talks in Geneva through a letter submitted to UN Secretary-General Gueterres on 14 January.
We presented at Manchester University's HCRI Career Day on 13 February on working in advocacy, research, and policy. We shared with the students some of the strands entailed in our line of work and offered them recommendations for their future career paths. There were other presenters on our panel from DFID and Save the Children.
We organised a big social for the Syrian community to come together for tea, coffee and cake on saturday 11 February 2017. Approximately 200 Syrians got together, including families, with lots of activities for the kids. It was an opportunity for the community to get to know each other and enjoy a lovely evening.
We took part in an information morning at the University of Cumbria organised by Carlisle Refugee Action Group and Carlisle One World Centre on the 11th of February, to help prepare for the arrival of refugees in Cumbria. We informed the audience about the situation in Syria and major issues about the refugee crisis.
We had an interview with That's Manchester TV on 10 February to discuss the latest updates on Syria. This hour-long programme delved into some of the more complex issues surrounding the conflict, including the recent developments in Daraya and Aleppo, as well as US President Trump's recent travel ban against individuals from several nations including Syria.
We attended an event on 10 February sponsored by Afzal Khan MEP in the Longsight & district sports & social club. This event was dedicated to listening to people's concerns on the Brexit process to feed this back into the Labour Party. We raised the profile of Syrian refugees and the impact that Brexit will have on them.
We gave a talk about Syria on 9th February 2017 to a community group in Warrington, along with local charity, CARE UK. We spoke about what is happening in Syria and addressed many misconceptions. The talk was well received with many expressing their support for the people of Syria. Thank you for hosting us.
We were invited to present 'Voices From Syria' to Blackpool Speakeasy on 8th February, 2017. It was a great evening and the audience was moved to tears listening to the experiences of Dr Haytham Alhamwi in the Syrian conflict. Here is what the organiser had to say about the event: