We contributed a reflection piece to the eighth issue of 'Syria Notes' published on 11 April in which we wrote some thoughts about the fifth anniversary of the Syrian revolution.
We signed onto a statement dated 11 April following the urgent call of women in Daraya for food drops. Given the unrelenting siege that is affecting them and other areas within Syria, we are again calling upon the UK Government to conduct air drops of food and medical supplies on besieged areas.
We held our indoor family fun day on Sunday 10 April in Levenshulme High School. This is one of the largest annual Syrian events in the country and we were blessed with amazing weather, dedicated and selfless volunteers, and wonderful guests who came from Manchester, London, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, and beyond!
We issued a press release on 8 April in light of recent findings of the Panama Papers pertaining to Syria. These papers reveal that HSBC, which has long been accused of arbitrarily closing the bank accounts of Syrian nationals, lobbied to maintain the Swiss bank accounts of Syria’s icon of corruption, Rami Makhlouf, after he had been sanctioned by both the US and the EU.
An article in the Middle East Eye on 8 April draws a link between Rethink Rebuild Society's bank campaign and recent revelations of the Panama papers. Rethink Rebuild Society initiated a campaign in 2014 to expose discriminatory practices of banks against Syrian individuals and organisations. HSBC was one of the main targets of this campaign.
A group of Syrian civil society organisations under the name of 'Save Our Syria' released a statement on 7 April 2016 regarding violations of the ceasefire agreement. We stressed that there must be consequences for any violation of the ceasefire and also pressed the urgency of the situation on the ground.
A Daily Mail article on 5 April shed light on the pro-Assad EuroCSE conference taking place in London on 5-6 April. This conference is hosting pro-Assad speakers including two ministers from the Assad regime.
We met with Katy Wood from the Asylum, Refugee and Migration Service of Manchester City Council on 4 April. We talked about some of the local approaches to the integration of Syrian refugees and what sort of coordination we can achieve to link both of our efforts.
Rochdale Council sent a letter of thanks on 30 March to our Refugee Support Coordinator Amaf Yousef for the help that Syrian refugees provided in the flood efforts in December. We are very humbled by this acknowledgement and look forward to further engagements with the community.
We met with Sekandar Merza, Chairman of the UK Islamic Mission, on 29 April. This was a meeting of introduction and to seek means of cooperation to help with the resettlement of Syrian refugees to be active in their society. We are very grateful to Sekandar for his time and look forward to working further with UKIM.