In response to the report by the Foreign Affairs Committee suggesting that the UK should cooperate with Assad to combat Daesh, we released both a press release and a Briefing exposing how delusional and childish this report is.
A group of young volunteers from the British-Syrian community have obtained a small grant to run six art therapy sessions for Syrian refugee children. In preparation for running these courses, they attended an art therapy training session delivered by Ms. Farah Alfarhan, who worked with internally displaced children in Aleppo.
Our March monthly seminar was delivered on Sunday 27 March by Mr. Wael Hamdoosh titled 'The Awareness Crisis in the Syrian Revolution'. This seminar focused on the issue of plurality and how the diversity of identities and viewpoints strengthens a nation. The seminar also touched on topics of tyranny, ignorance, fear, and special interests.
We held a CV-writing workshop on 27 March in our office. This workshop was geared for Syrians who are new to the UK system and who may not be aware of what a CV is or how it should be written. The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Mansour Baghdadi, who went through the steps entailed before applying for a job, writing the actual CV, and conducting interviews.
We met with Julie Ward MEP on 25 March to discuss issues pertaining to Syria. Given Julie's passion for refugees, we spent a considerable amount of time discussing the UK's vulnerable persons relocation scheme and identifying ways to push and challenge the implementation of the scheme.
Four of RR's members presented the 'Voices from Syria' talk at Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel in Warrington on Wednesday 23 March 2016.
We were invited to give a talk to the members of the Stretton Mothers Union on 24th March, along with the lovely Nora Carlin who is managing a warehouse in Warrington to help collect donations for Syria.
We met with Gillian Preece and Gideon Winward from the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Programme on 24 March. We introduced to them the work of Rethink Rebuild Society in helping Syrian refugees and some of the primary obstacles that we have faced in our work.
A group of students from the University of Manchester, working with Fuse TV, created a short film about the work that we do at Rethink Rebuild Society. The footage was shot in November 2015 and the film itself was released on 22 March 2016.
Our movie night on 20 March was 'Paradise Now', a film set in the context of the Palestinian conflict. The film was very insightful and thought-provoking, and the discussion afterwards grappled with some very difficult questions.
Rethink Rebuild Society
First Floor
Discovery House
Crossley Road
Manchester
SK4 5BH
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 161 222 9779
Mobile: +44 7730 194083