We have heard the stories of survival of many Syrians in the UK. They have fled the war; from shelling, fighting and airstrikes, illegal arrests and hunger. Many Bosnians and Herzegovinans will understand the suffering and hardship of Syrian refugees because they have gone through the hell of war themselves.
BH UK Network, the umbrella organization of BiH associations in the United Kingdom, has been providing assistance to our BiH citizens for over 20 years. Our organization was founded on 18 May 1996 with the primary goal of providing assistance to the BiH community on the Island. Over the years, we have achieved significant success and are considered by many to be one of the most organized ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom.
With the aim of sharing our experience with other communities and thus helping them, in 2004 we expanded our organisation’s goals to include providing assistance to other ethnic minorities in the UK, in addition to helping the Bosnian-Herzegovinian community. Since then, we have implemented a number of projects and helped many newly arrived groups integrate into British society.
We were recently delighted to hear that our project proposal to provide assistance to the Syrian community has been given the green light by Birmingham City Council (£49,000). This positive news is the result of many years of good cooperation with Birmingham City Council. We want to help Syrian refugees in Birmingham to form a Syrian organization, learning from our experience, our successes (and our failures).
The key to the successful implementation of this project is the employment and training of two workers who will help integrate the Syrian community through the following activities:
• Support the formation of a Syrian organization that will be able to provide long-term support to the Syrian community in Birmingham.
• Helping to raise the level of understanding of the Syrian refugee community in Birmingham about the potential for self-help
• Establish a telephone helpline offering guidance and a ‘listening ear’, as well as informal counselling services for individuals and families. This will need to be done within an agreed framework of confidentiality. Mental health issues are stigmatised in the Syrian community. Volunteers will need training to encourage service users to speak honestly about the personal issues affecting them.
• Helping to represent the Syrian community at the political and strategic level, through attendance at consultative meetings.
• Providing support to isolated families and individuals, including advocating for their needs.
• Organising events that will increase the reach of existing services within Birmingham’s Syrian community. These events will include calls to organisations currently providing advice and support, and will cover areas including housing, legal rights, education, training, health and leisure.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the start of the project and the hiring of new workers have been postponed. We hope to be able to start the project implementation soon.
