Dr Haytham Alhamwi from RR and Dr Ayman Jundi from Syria Relief charity delivered talks to Manchester University students in a Reconstruction and Development course as well as a Humanitarian Responses to Crisis course on Thursday 28 April.
In light of the failure of the Syria peace talks (yet again) and the Assad regime's continuous violation of the ceasefire agreement, Syrian groups in the UK published a statement on 27 April calling on the international community to 'put civilian protection at the heart of its Syrian policy'.
We met with Stephen Hale, Chief Executive of Refugee Action, on 26 April to discuss integration and resettlement efforts for Syrian refugees. Building upon a previous meeting that we had with him, we discussed ways in which we can highlight some issues that Syrian refugees face, most particularly a lack of access to ESOL classes.
We hosted a seminar on 25 April titled 'Education in the UK', presented by community volunteers Ms. Iram Hussain and Ms. Hayley Poulson.
We hosted a movie screening on 24 April for 'Selma', which depicts the African American struggle for equality in the US in the civil rights era. The movie was followed by a discussion of the lessons that we can learn as Syrians from the African American struggle, and what it means to demand rights and freedom.
Community youth volunteers ran a session of 'Artful Children' on 23 April in which they had children trace and design full-size images of themselves. This six-week programme for Syrian children between the ages of 5 and 10 has been funded by V-inspired and is being organised completely by youth volunteers.
We were happy to be invited to Leeds University by the Politics and International Studies Society (POLIS), on 20th April 2016, to speak to students about the conflict in Syria. It was a pleasure to engage with such intelligent students and answer their questions about the Syrian conflict.
Following the brutal murder to two students and one school staff (all known by our education team) in Idlib on 20 April by an Assad regime air attack, we issued a press release stressing that the ceasefire and subsequent political solution cannot hold unless there are guarantees for civilian protection.
Thank you to members of the Manchester Jewish community for inviting us to speak about the work we do at their Seder service on Sat 16th April.
The story of Prophet Moses and the freedom of the Israelites from Pharoah is one of the significant stories mentioned in the Quran and one that all three faiths, (Islam, Christianity and Judaism), share.
We are very pleased to announce the completion of a promotional video on our work at Rethink Rebuild Society. This video provides an overview of our organisation and the various ways in which we serve the UK's Syrian community. We would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to Mr. Jake Lloyd who volunteered his time to produce this video.