Nottingham Refugee Week 2009

Nottingham Refugee Week is part of a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution that refugees make to the UK and encourages a better understanding between communities.

Despite an incredibly limited budget this year’s Refugee Week was the most successful to date. Fifteen events were organised and involving over 2,000 from participating in workshops and activities to attending events throughout the week.

Forty one artists and musicians from a variety of nationalities performed on stage and delivered workshops. Over fifty volunteers and twenty two organisations, including Tuntum and Refugee Futures were involved in the planning and programming of activities and at least 18 different nationalities were involved. The Festival also received very positive coverage in the Nottingham Evening Post.

The week kicked off with a Speakers Corner Public Debate event entitled “Speak Up for Refugees in Nottingham” on Saturday 13th June with six speakers from a range of refugee community organisations. On the same day the Central Library organised a very successful Living Books event which included a number of refugees, asylum seekers and children.

The Launch was held in the Market Square during the One World Festival on the Sunday which was a huge success with bands and musicians from Zimbabwe, The Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Kurdistan and Iran entertaining the crowds. It was a perfect summer’s day and the atmosphere was greatly enhanced by a number of information and social enterprise stalls from refugee community organisations and other agencies including Tuntum, as well as art and face painting workshops for children. Obediar Madziva’s metal animal sculptures in particular were big hit with the crowd, with everyone wanting to be photographed next to the baby giraffe.

One spectator said “I’m a student from India and I think it’s really unusual (but good), to see an event such as this taking place – keep up the good work!”.

The rest of the week’s events included such as films at Braodway Cinema and a fantastically successful and enjoyable “Who wants to be a Zimbabwean Billionaire” Pub Quiz where Refugee Futures amply named Future Heads team came second out of 15 teams! Dara Ivekich, Refugee Futures Service Manager and Team Captain said “It was a very competitive evening with lots of competition between the teams... we were beaten in the post by only one point! We are already interview for next year’s team to ensure we take the title.”

The week ended with another very successful Family Fun Day at the Central Library which included puppet, art and salsa workshops, a fashion show, Iranian poetry, Cameroonian and Arabic storytelling, face painting, African musicians and food and refreshments provided by the Arabic and Congolese communities. Patsy Brand, Chair of Refugee said “It was a great success! Well done everybody”.