Today is a chance to recognise the strength and resilience of people rebuilding their lives in Scotland, and to celebrate the talent, skills and cultural richness that refugees have brought to the country for more than 40 years.
On this World Refugee Day, we’d like to introduce you to our Refugee Festival Scotland Ambassadors.
Refugee Festival Scotland is celebrating 25 years of art, culture and community across Scotland. This year’s theme is milestones, which a chance for people to acknowledge important moments in their personal journeys, and create time and space to celebrate achievements along the way.
Our Ambassadors are spokespeople for the Festival. They want to use their voices to help build understanding about what it means to be a refugee in Scotland today.
These are their stories.
Shahid
Shahid is a senior policy advisor from Pakistan, who now lives in Glasgow (he also likes the Highlands, where the “beautiful snow-capped mountains and meadows” remind him of his home country). He has been selected for an esteemed Rotary Peace Fellowship at North Carolina University this summer.
He said: “Refugee Festival Scotland is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the diversity of modern-day Scotland, but it’s also an opportunity to showcase the resilience and perseverance that refugees and asylum seekers bring to our society. It’s a moment for us to reflect and to recognise the contributions of asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland, given the political polarisation in the world.”
Shahid is passionate about improving access to employment and education people from refugee backgrounds. People are currently banned from working while awaiting a decision about their asylum application.
He said: “When you think about refugees and asylum seekers, some of them are highly qualified professional people. What kind of society are we developing where the potential of these individuals is not being tapped? People want to work, they want to contribute to their communities and to the economy — so why not?”
Anna
Anna fled to Scotland with her family of five three years ago, after the war against Ukraine started. She now lives near Helensburgh. Anna has a background in coaching, teaching and physiotherapy. She currently works as an interpreter and serves on the committee of the Ukrainian Community in Argyll and Bute.
During the Festival, Anna helped organise an event in Oban to help bring together other members of the Ukrainian community living in Argyll and Bute.
Anna said: “It’s a privilege for me to take part in such a beautiful project and to represent Ukrainian culture to share with Scotland.
“It’s a great chance for the people of Ukraine to celebrate their resilience. It’s also a chance to meet with other cultures and show the beauty and diversity of the whole world. We need to find common ground and focus on unity to build a peaceful future world for our children.”
Vongayi
Vongayi lives in Glasgow after fleeing her home in Zimbabwe eight years ago. She works with Amma Birth Companions, a charity which supports people from migrant backgrounds during pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenthood. Her organisation also helps people who work with birthing people from migrant backgrounds, so they can deliver culturally sensitive care.
She said: “I can’t imagine a single parent who has newly arrived in Glasgow going without the support. I understand the power of sharing lived experience and the impact it has on driving change. I love working with people from migrant backgrounds because of the shared lived experience and raising awareness so that refugees can be understood.”
On working with Refugee Festival Scotland, she added: “Festivals like this are an affirmation for refugees to say: ‘you are here now, you can start to rebuild and there’s a community that supports you.’”
Hussein
Hussein is a Yemeni-born citizen of the world. He has now settled in Glasgow, where he said he “finally found the chance to build roots and grow”. When he first arrived in Glasgow, he started volunteering. One of his first roles was stepping in as a Turkish interpreter during Cop26.
He now works as a freelance Arabic interpreter, where he says he is “trying to help others who are facing the “isolating journey of resettling and navigating the same complex systems I once faced”.
Hussein said: “Having been on both ends of the journey, I try to bridge the gaps and make sure people feel truly heard, and I hope I can help them feel truly seen as well.
Reflecting on the Festival’s theme of milestones, he said: “For a long time, the milestones I hit were not ‘achievements’, they were steps in the process of moving from surviving to thriving. Afterwards, certainly comes the achievements and the milestones in the more regular sense of the term. But it’s an interesting change for me of what the word represents.”
Sadia
Sadia Sikandar is an award-winning artist, writer, photographer, activist, and campaigner from Pakistan. She has received multiple awards for her work as an art teacher in her home country and the recognition for her art and activism has continued since she settled in the UK. A former Refugee Week Ambassador, she has also worked with UNHCR. Her photography work has been exhibited internationally, with showings across the UK, US, India, and Mexico.
Her latest exhibition Unwritten Milestones: The Silent Talent Trapped in Limbo is on display Refugweegee in Glasgow until June 30th.
Much of Sadia’s art and activism deals with the UK’s hostile asylum system and shining a spotlight on the stories of people who have come through it.
Sadia said: “I have been through the system, and it needs to be changed. There is a of stigma with the way the system is designed, and it’s really painful for people.
“People should not have to suffer in the system, they have already been through a lot. That’s why they come here in the first place, to seek safety.
“We should not discourage refugees from feeling alive. Everyone should have a reason to feel valuable and feel welcome.”
With huge thanks to Becky Duncan from Open Aye Photography for photographing this year’s Ambassadors.
