Category: Stories

Roqia Hashimi and her family fled Afghanistan when the country was seized by the Taliban in 2021. Her husband was in the Afghan army and his life was under threat, so the family had no choice but to leave, says Roqia.     She was pregnant at the time, and the family also included a young… Continue reading Roqia

Amanuel is from Eritrea. The date he arrived in the UK – 28 March 2022 – is seared in his memory. He had to leave his country of birth, he says, ‘because of the Government. I cannot say what I want to there, it is not safe. There is, in short, no freedom’.    After… Continue reading Amanuel

Fatima arrived in Penrith in 2017. She and her husband and young son fled the Syrian civil war in 2011 and were refugees in Lebanon until 2017, when they arrived in the UK under the Syrian resettlement scheme.  Her second son was born in Lebanon and she became pregnant with her third child soon after… Continue reading Fatima

Gamal was born in a city in northern Egypt. He excelled in his studies and achieved a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He was working as an engineer at a power station when he got caught up in the protests in his country in 2013.    He was arrested, and spent many months in prison,… Continue reading Gamal

When war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022, Yuliia was forced to flee, crossing the border to Poland with her young son, Mykyta. There, she waited to be matched with an English host under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and in July 2022 she and Mykyta made their way to rural Cumbria.    This… Continue reading Yuliia

When I came to the UK, I need to find more opportunities to improve my English. But it is difficult due to the pandemic. So, I joined the English club in the last year. Our teachers are experienced. In the English club, I practice English and meet many new friends. This people have some interesting… Continue reading Leo Liu

Hi, I came to the UK two years ago, I’m a Spanish speaker and to speak English have been so difficult to me, although I have been taking class. Joining to The PERN English Club was really good because I could get to know new people of different places, to share different traditions and to… Continue reading Miranda Delgado

I joined PERN’s online English Conversation Club in September 2020. I like the classes, what I loved the most is that there is freedom of expression and I learned new words, and how to pronounce them too. I like that we talk about different topics because I learn vocabulary of everything.

“Hello, my name is Roula and I am from Aleppo, Syria.   I studied Business and Finance in Aleppo and worked in an International Telecommunications Company, and I worked in a bank.   After a long journey and a long wait of over two years, I was finally able to join my husband in the… Continue reading Roula Abdulkarim

Naser was a founder member of the Dunkirk Adult Learning Centre with Sarah Wilson back in 2015. Many of you will remember the stunning slides of Kurdistan Iran that he showed when he visited Penrith a few years ago. He has studied English diligently and here he writes of his experience.   “Leaving one’s homeland… Continue reading Naser Shariat Panah