Different faith communities will come together once again from 10th – 17th November to mark national Inter Faith Week. The theme of the week is ‘Stronger Together’ with a focus on sharing our spiritual homes and how we help in the community. Throughout the week, a number of Cheltenham’s faith groups will open their doors to anyone who would like to visit and learn more about them. These events are being delivered in partnership with Cheltenham Inter Faith and Cheltenham Borough Council. You can find details of all the week’s events and book tickets at: Cheltenham Inter Faith event tickets from TicketSource. Everyone is welcome at all of the events and tickets are free.  Pre-registration is essential.

One of the events will showcase the work of Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees and be an opportunity to explore the involvement and aspirations of local faith groups to support refugees living in Cheltenham.

You are warmly invited to join us at this event.

We'll be taking to The Huddle Stage in Montpellier Gardens to give you our top recommendations in reading refugee voices and we'll be celebrating Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers' new book of traditional stories as told by their clients from around the world. Join us for storytelling, readings and recommendations on 7 October 2024 at 6pm on The Huddle Stage.
 
Then join us afterwards in the Lit Fest Café to discuss this month's book:
Silence is My Mother Tongue by Sulaiman Addonia.

Get ready for our 2024 Film Night! We’ll be screening ‘Aisha’ starring Letitia Wright and Josh O'Connor at the Cheltenham Playhouse on Tuesday 10 September 2024.

Aisha, a young Nigerian woman seeking asylum in Ireland, is floundering in a maze of social services and bureaucracy. Alone and unwilling to sacrifice her dignity to satisfy the demands of the authorities, she finds an ally in Conor, an employee at her residence home, a local young man with a troubled past of his own. Together they struggle to maintain their tender friendship in the face of Aisha’s increasingly dire predicament and her rapidly diminishing options.

This event is part of a series of ‘Mayor’s Charities’ events for 2024. CWR is grateful to by chosen as one of the Mayor’s Charities along with Aim Up, Friends of Sandford Park and CCP. Funds raised from the event will be split between the four charities.

Our next book club is at the height of summer - 6 August 2024 at 6pm. We’re going to have Bookclub in the Park (weather permitting). We’ll be meeting near the bandstand in Montpellier Gardens. Bring a rug or picnic chair and we’ll find a nice spot to get settled and discuss the latest book.

The book this time is Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa.

“As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in an Israeli prison. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, modern appliances, children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation.”

Our next quiz night is coming up on 27 June 2024 at 6:30pm at Boston Tea Party. As usual come with a team of up to 6 people or come by yourself and join a team when you get there. The BTP kitchen closes at 6 usually so come early if you want food, or otherwise they will be serving drinks and smoothies all evening.

£2 suggested donation per person.

For Refugee Week we are joining with Gloucestershire Libraries to celebrate Refugee Stories. We will be holding an event at the main Cheltenham Library on Monday 17 June 2024 at 5:30pm to start off Refugee Week thinking about what makes up the refugee experience and celebrating the many and varied refugee voices.

We’ll be reading extracts of some of our recommended reads and discussing what to bear in mind when reading refugee literature.

We are excited to be joined by Jude Emmet from Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers. GARAS has collected 25 traditional stories from their refugee and asylum seeking clients from all over the world to mark their 25th birthday. They are aiming to turn these into a book. A selection of their stories will be performed as part of our Reading Refugee Stories event on 17 June.

Join us for our next book club discussion on Tuesday 4 June 2024 at 6:30pm at The Swan pub on the High Street in Cheltenham.

We are reading People Like Us by Hashi Mohamed. Feel free to come along and join us. If you want more information, contact Anna at chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com

Join us on 2 April for our Book Club. We’ll be discussing Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So. We meet at The Swan pub on the High Street, Cheltenham from 6:30pm. Just turn up or if you want more info, email chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com.

Join us for our next Quiz Night at the Boston Tea Party. We will be meeting to enjoy our usual Quiz fun and fundraising on Thursday 21 March 2024. The quiz kicks off at 6:30pm but come early if you want food as the BTP kitchen closes at 6pm. Drinks are served all evening!

Come along with a team or join one when you get there. We’d love to see you!

Our book group will next read Azadi by Arundhati Roy, a collection of political essays that the Indian author has published between 2018 and 2020 that revolve around Indian identity and Hindu nationalism. She “challenges us to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism.”

We’re meeting at The Swan pub, High Street, Cheltenham on Tuesday 6th February at 6.30pm. 

Everyone is welcome. We hope to see you on 6th February or on the first Tuesday of every other month!

Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees and Cheltenham Volunteer Teachers English Classes invite you to come and join their festive celebration at St Thomas More Church on 15 December 2023 at 6:45pm.

There will be carol singing, mince pies and hot drinks on offer.

If you’d like to attend, please email louisemcody@icloud.com so there is an idea of numbers.

CWR’s next book club is on Tuesday 5 December 2023 at 6:30pm at The Swan pub, High Street, Cheltenham. We are reading Cane, Corn & Gully by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa. It is described as a “joyous liberatory dance against oppression presently and historically.”

Do join us to discuss it on 5 December!

If you would like to be added to the email distribution list for reminders about Book Club and updates on what we will be reading next, do email chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com.

Our Quiz is back with more fun and brain teasers planned for 9 November 2023 at the Boston Tea Party. The questions start at 6:30pm and BTP will be serving drinks throughout, but do come early if you also want food as their kitchen usually closes around 6pm.

It’s a suggested donation of £2 per person for entry - come with a team, or just rock up and join one! Teams of 6 are generally the max. :D

Can’t wait to see you there!

This month we are reading Zoli by Colum McCann for CWR’s Book Club. We’re meeting a bit later in the month than usual on 17 October 2023 at 6:30pm at The Swan pub, High Street, Cheltenham. Do come along to discuss the book with us, or just to say hi!

We’re at Cheltenham Literature Festival! Come join us as part of the Free Programme at The Huddle.

11 October 2023 4pm

The Huddle, Feast Cafe, Montpellier Gardens

Join the Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees book club to learn more about their group and get some great book recommendations.

For Refugee Week, we’re holding a Film Night, showing of Limbo, a drama and comedy about the refugee experience.

Thursday 22nd June at 7pm (bar open from 6.30pm) at the Cheltenham Playhouse.

Come and join us to celebrate UK Refugee Week with "this wry, poignant, and bracingly funny ode to the kindness of strangers."

Ben Sharrock’s critically adored Limbo is a poignant cross-cultural satire that subtly sews together the hardship and hope of the refugee experience. Set on a fictional remote Scottish island, it follows a group of new arrivals as they await the results of their asylum claims.

You're invited to stay for a short Q&A to find out more about the situation in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.

Did you know that asylum seekers are not allowed to work while their claims are being considered? They are keen to use their skills and contribute to our economy. Find out more about the coalition to lift the ban on them working here and sign the petition: https://lifttheban.co.uk/ 

Limbo is rated suitable for viewers age 12 and over.

Go to https://cheltplayhouse.org.uk/ to book tickets - £6.

Our next CWR/Lives of Colour Book Club is on 6 June 2023, 6:30pm at The Swan, High Street, Cheltenham.

We're reading The Leash and The Ball by Rodaan Al Galidi.

It's the story of Samir, who after 9 years in a Dutch asylum centre, finally has the chance to start his new life as a European citizen. We follow Samir as he talks his way into every type of accommodation to be found in this new country of incomprehensible rules and habits. It explores the meaning of home, and making oneself at home against all odds. 

Do come join us to discuss it at 6:30 at The Swan in Cheltenham.

Join us on May 11th 2023 for our popular quiz night!
This time we’re teaming up with the University of Gloucestershire’s Refugee Support Society to come up with some challenging rounds and to help them raise money for their volunteering trip to Calais to work with the Refugee Community Kitchen.

The suggested donation is £2 per person. Teams can be up to about 6 people. Either come with a team or join one when you arrive!

As ever, we’re so grateful to Boston Tea Party for hosting us. Do come early if you want to order food as the last food orders are usually around 6pm.

Come and join us in the park to find out more about our volunteering opportunities! 

We are a small charity, run by volunteers, and we're always looking for more people to become involved in our monthly café, our yearly summer picnic, our media and events groups and many other activities.

Did you know that in the UK, people who are waiting for their asylum claim to be considered cannot work? Many would love to use theirs skills and talents to contribute. Today, we will also post about this issue on social media and share the Lift the Ban campaign: https://lifttheban.co.uk/. If you have a smartphone, you can come and join us and post today.

We will be sitting on a blanket in Pittville Park, below the play area, 3pm-5pm on 8 May 2023. In the case of bad weather, we will instead meet at the Friends Meeting House GL52 2NP, https://www.cheltenhamquaker.org.uk/meeting-house-location). We will update this page on the weekend.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The next CWR/Lives of Colour book club book is Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo. It’s the story of five runaways who take the bus to a better life in a megacity. Each has to face up to life-changing choices between morality and truth, as all the multifaceted shades of humanity are shown up in the kaleidoscope of Lagos. 

We will be discussing the book on Tuesday 4 April 2023 at 6:30pm in The Railway Pub, New Street, Cheltenham. We hope you can join us! 

Our Quiz Night is back! We’ll be at the Boston Tea Party in Cheltenham for another fun-packed quiz on 23 February 2023. Get a team together or come down and join one on the night. Suggested donation is £2 per person.

Arrive early to order food!

Cwr/lives of colour book club - 8 feb 2023 - little brother

Join us on 8 February 2023, 6:30pm at The Railway Pub in Cheltenham to discuss our next book club book. We’re reading Little Brother by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus Antia. It is the first hand account of Ibrahima’s journey from West Africa to Europe, crossing the desert looking for his brother.

We look forward to seeing you there!

CWR takes over the pitville park parkrun

We’re excited for another Parkrun Takeover in 2023. Taking place on 28 January 2023 at the Pitville Park Parkrun. Register with parkrun to take part on the day and if you would like to run in one of our CWR running vests, please email Isabel at chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com.

If you are a CWR registered volunteer and would like to help steward the run, please contact chelt.refugees.community@gmail.com. You need to be free from 8am on the day for a quick induction.

Thanks to the Parkrun organisers for inviting us back!

The next CWR/Lives of Colour Book Club is going to be held in person on Tuesday 6 December 2022, 6:30pm at The Railway Pub, New Street, Cheltenham, GL50 3QL. Do come down and join us there whether you’re a long standing book club member or a just interested in finding out more.

We’re a friendly group and whether you manage to read the book or not, our discussions are always interesting, open-minded and a good space for engaging with issues that affect us all.

This month’s book is Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka. Hilarious and moving, it is a story set in the English countryside, beginning on a beautiful summer evening in a Kent field where, around their two caravans, a little group of strawberry pickers are getting ready to celebrate a birthday...

Join our CWR/Lives of Colour Book Club on 4 October 2022 at 6:30pm at The Railway pub, New Street, Cheltenham, GL50 3QL.

We’re reading His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie. It’s an engaging tale about a Ghanaian woman who enters an arranged marriage to please her family and then has to search for her independence.

Enjoy! And see you on 4 October to talk all about it!

Join us for our fun-filled fundraising Quiz Night on 28 September 2022. The Boston Tea Party in Cheltenham are kindly hosting us again. The Quiz will get started at 6:30pm.

When: Wednesday 28 September 2022 at 6:30pm

Where: Boston Tea Party, 45-49 Clarence Street, Cheltenham, GL50 3JS

Suggested Donation: £2 per person

The next CWR/Lives of Colour Book Club is going to be held in person on Tuesday 2 August 2022, 6:30pm at The Railway Pub, New Street, Cheltenham, GL50 3QL. Do come down and join us there whether you’re a long standing book club member or a just interested in finding out more.

We’re a friendly group and whether you manage to read the book or not, our discussions are always interesting, open-minded and a good space for learning and engaging with issues that affect us all, refugee or not.

This month’s book is the searingly honest and bravely written memoir, Hope Not Fear, by Hassan Akkad.

Hassan is a photographer and filmmaker who won a BAFTA for his film ‘Exodus’ about his journey to the UK. You can watch a short clip from the film here.

Driven by an unshakeable instinct to raise awareness, help and connect, Hassan describes his life in Syria before the war and then his journey to the UK. Since seeking asylum in the UK, it is his caring instinct and determination that has seen Hassan share not only his unique eye-witness experience as a refugee, but also to document his work as a cleaner at a London hospital Covid-19 ward which instigated a government U-turn on excluding the families of NHS cleaners and porters from its bereavement compensation scheme.

Hope Not Fear is an extraordinary memoir that can’t help but be a call to action and to hope.

Come and find out more about our work!

Programme:

12.30-3pm Drop-in writing workshops

1pm Yoga session

1.30 Meditation

2pm Meditation

3pm Yoga session

The theme of this Refugee Week is ‘Healing’, celebrating community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again. The Refugee Week organisers say that ‘we have much to learn from refugees about holding onto hope when going on seems impossible – as well as about how art, creativity and community can help us to heal.’ That’s why we’re inviting people seeking asylum and everyone in Cheltenham to an afternoon of mindful and restorative activities.

Drop in anytime - stay as long as you like.

Many thanks to Kathryn Buxton (www.spacious-mind.co.uk), OrangeYoga (https://www.orangeyoga.co.uk) and Megan Hastings (https://eye4detail.org/) for offering these activities.

This is a free event.

Amal is a 3.5 meter puppet. From July to November 2021, representing all displaced children, many separated from their families, Amal travelled over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”.

Since the beginning of her journey in 2021, Little Amal has travelled through over 70 cities and been welcomed at more than 160 unique events, reaching 875,000 people in the 12 countries she has already visited, and millions more online.

In June 2022, one year on from leaving Syria she will take part in World Refugee Week by visiting 10 towns and cities across England meeting old friends and making new ones.” (https://www.walkwithamal.org/)

We’re delighted that Cheltenham is getting the chance to welcome Little Amal to Cheltenham during Refugee Week. She will be arriving in Cheltenham from 2pm on Thursday 23 June 2022.

At The Everyman Theatre she will be given a royal welcome from the Queens of King Henry VIII – the cast of SIX The Musical. Join us there at 5pm!

As Amal walks through the town centre, she will be welcomed by children and their poems of welcome.

She will lay flowers of remembrance for those she has lost.  Amal’s last memory of Cheltenham, the festival town, will be dancing with children of many different nationalities in a celebration of the life that we share together. Find us at our stall in Imperial Gardens from about 6pm.

In partnership with Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, Cheltenham Borough Council, Visit Cheltenham, Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees, Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Lives of Colour and Cheltenham Festivals.

With thanks to Gloucestershire Constabulary and Gloucestershire County Council.