We were invited by Student Action, a student group at Manchester University, to deliver a talk on the Syrian refugee crisis on 26 October. We first talked about how Syria was before the uprising to highlight the conditions that pushed people to protest in 2011.
Syrian children had a fun and creative day during half term - Wednesday 26th October - doing art with the amazing Jenny from Parsley Pie Arts Club. They painted treasure chests, canvases, made hand mirrors and clay models and much more! It was great to see so much creativity and artistic talent among the children. Most importantly they had a great time.
Along with eighty-seven NGOs, Rethink Rebuild Society signed a joint statement on 24 October raising serious concerns and objections over Russia's bid for re-election to the UN Human Rights Council. Elections will be taking place at the Human Rights Council on 28 October.
We had a lovely day on Sunday 23rd Oct at Crowcroft park, where people flew the kites they had made at the previous kite making workshops. We also had an additional kite making workshop on the day for everyone to make more kites and fly them. The weather was great for kite flying, and many families came to enjoy the day, fly kites and have food.
Our monthly seminar was delivered on 23 October by Mr. Hamad Shihab Altalaa Aljabouri by the title of 'The Future Syria between Central Government and the Wrongly Understood Concept of Federalism'. Mr. Aljabouri talked about the different political systems of having a strong central government versus having a federal system of government.
We resumed our monthly movie nights on Sunday 16 October by showing 'Animal Farm'. Our well-attended movie was followed by a discussion on revolution, and how a revolution can be successful, and how to gauge the success of a revolution.
We ran film and photography workshops as part of the Journeys Festival in the container at Manchester St Anne's square. The project was called Reconnect, and local Art professionals teamed up with refugee trainees to develop workshops for the benefit of others.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live on 12 October, we stressed our disappointed with UK foreign policy on Syria, particularly Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's call for people to protest outside the Russian embassy without taking any additional steps as a nation to protect civilians in Syria.
ACTION ALERT
Yesterday Russia vetoed its fifth draft Security Council Resolution on Syria, further paralysing international action. Even China did not cast a veto this time.
While this is breaking news especially in light of what is happening in Aleppo, our dear BBC has not even seen fit to report on this issue.
We had a lovely day at Manchester museum as part of the Journeys Festival. The theme was Refugee Journey and celebrating artwork, music, creativity and culture of refugee activists. Our kite-making workshops were extremely busy and it was great to see so many Syrian families turn up.