Our monthly seminar for January was presented by Dr. Saladin Sawan by the title of 'Parallel Lines Intersect, Numbers Equal their Multiples, and the Limits of Reason - Can we Succeed if we Start Over?'. This seminar provided an interesting challenge to attendees to evaluate their decision-making processes and to understand the limits of reason. Dr.
Manchester's Syrian community and supporters protested in Piccadilly Gardens on 16 January 2016 to end the sieges on Syrian cities and villages. While we were very happy that UN aid has finally reached Madaya, know that there are still many areas under siege in Syria.
ربما تعرفون عن قصة الشاب السوري خلدون سنجاب الذي تحدى ظروفه القاهرة وشلله الكامل بإرادة وتصميم. حياة خلدون اليوم في خطر في لبنان كما كانت دوما في حال انقطاع الكهرباء. كسوريين مقيمين في بريطانيا نطلب من الحكومة البريطانية أن تضم خلدون إلى قائمة الأشخاص الذين تريد جلبهم إلى بريطانيا.
Khaldoon Sinjab, quadriplegic Syrian refugee, has his life at risk every single day in Lebanon. As the British Syrian community and supporters, we are demanding our Government to include Khaldoon as one of the 20,000 Syrian refugees to be resettled to the UK.
We met with Lucy Powell MP on 15 January in her office in Manchester city centre. This was our first formal meeting with Lucy, so there was a lot to discuss! We outlined our concerns for civilian protection and stressed that without such protection, not only will peace talks fail, but so will the fight against Daesh.
Rethink Rebuild Society signed a statement written by an international coalition group called 'Save our Syria'. This statement highlighted the urgent need for the international community to drop food and humanitarian support to besieged areas in Syria, and to condemn the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
A group of youth volunteers met in the RR office on 15 January to create and pursue volunteer initiatives. One group is working on creating art projects for young refugees, and another is working on getting Syrian refugees involved in community service initiatives. We look forward to seeing these ideas develop!
The British Syrian community and supporters will be in Manchester Piccadilly on Saturday, 16 January at 3 pm to call upon the British Government to drop food, not bombs, on Syria.
We had the pleasure of speaking at the Liberal-Democrats' special conference on the Syria vote. This conference was meant to review the party's policy in approaching the December vote on Syria (to bomb Daesh) and to discuss whether this represented the right course of action.
We spoke at an event in London organised by the Muslim Association of Britain on 8 January 2015 titled 'Engaging Communities: A practical response to the refugee crisis'. The event hosted a total of seven speakers from diverse backgrounds, include those who work with refugees from many different perspectives.