Refugee Week Launch

We held our local launch of Refugee Week on Saturday 17 June in Penrith town centre to show the community’s welcome for refugees and asylum seekers. Many thanks to all the PERN members and supporters who came along, and special thanks to the refugees and asylum seekers who attended and spoke at the event.

Participants included people from Eritrea, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria. Several asylum seekers had travelled down from Carlisle for the occasion. They spoke movingly about the terrible plight of women and girls in Afghanistan and the repressive regime in Eritrea that means many people in these countries live in constant fear for their safety and the lives of their families. We also heard from Syrian and Ukrainian mothers who have settled as refugees in Penrith with their children and who expressed their gratitude for the welcome and support that they’ve received here.

We held a street stall during the day to talk to members of the public and to provide them with information about refugees and asylum seekers. We handed out our updated ‘myth buster’ information sheet that counters much of the inaccurate and inflammatory rhetoric that frequently appears in social media and the press. It was great that so many new local people signed up to support PERN’s work.