How our refugee centre coped with lockdown

“Stay at home!” “Work from home!” “Get your food delivered!” When faced with these stark announcements in late March, we at St Chad”s Sanctuary had to think not only about how we could respond but how can we help asylum seekers and refugees to respond to those messages. How can you stay safely at home when the “home” you have is a bed in a room shared with strangers, with a communal bathroom? How can you work from home when you are not allowed to be employed or are likely to work in low skilled, low paid jobs? How can you have food delivered when you are prevented from having a bank account?

It has certainly been a challenging time and we are proud to say that rather than reduce our services during the pandemic, at St Chad”s Sanctuary we have not only kept functioning but we have increased our offering. When lockdown became a reality we, like everyone else, were faced with stark choices and harsh decisions. Firstly we had to ask our small army of volunteers to stay away. This was incredibly difficult as we rely heavily on the hard work and dedication of our 100-plus volunteer force. Even more heartbreakingly we had to stop our English classes for our students who are enrolled with us because they are banned from attending college in England.

At the beginning of lockdown we did not know how far lockdown would go and whether we would have to “shut up shop” completely. We are delighted that we have been able to remain open to give out food and clothing to asylum seekers and refugees on our usual distribution days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, even remaining open on bank holidays when we would usually close. We have functioned for many weeks on 2 staff a day rather than the usual 40-plus volunteers and staff and have adapted how we work accordingly. 

While we cannot now welcome people into the building for a cup of tea and a chat as we used to, we hand out bottles of drink and snack food to people queueing. We have relocated lots of our clothing resources to the ground floor for ease of access and we pass requested items out in bundles through the window. We have started making home deliveries to those who are isolating or cannot travel to us. 

Our English lessons were moved online with such speed and efficiency it was as if the volunteers and students had been “Zooming”, “WhatsApping” and “Telegramming” all their lives. An impressive array of classes have been happening through the wonders of technology, including some, such as cookery demonstrations, that we would not have been able to achieve in the building.

Our Little School team have continued to fight for the children who have not been granted a school place whilst providing them with individualised, online lessons. We also began contributing to the costs of data usage so that our students would not be prevented from attending our classes by lack of funds.

We had to stop accepting donations of clothing for a while but now thankfully can accept it again with new social distancing guidelines in place, however we have been overwhelmed with the generosity of our food donations. We have given out food to more people than ever before. As increasing types of shops reopen we are carefully considering our options for wider reopening and whilst this will be a slow, steady process we are greatly looking forward to the day when we can welcome back our service users, volunteers and friends with open arms and of course, a cup of tea. 

My favourite moment was when I delivered food to a mum and daughter who were isolating. The door was thrown open by a very excited little girl who exclaimed “You came! You have given us presents! Food, mama, we have food!” Her face when she saw the Elsa doll that I had balanced on top was something I will never forget; “You brought me a friend!”

She then invited me to look at the tall weeds and dandelions pushing through cracked, graffiti-covered paving slabs outside their front door and told me, astonished, that she didn”t have to do anything, “the beautiful flowers just grew and grew!” She certainly taught me a thing or two about gratitude that day. The next time I visited she presented me with a beautiful drawing of a lion to say thank you. The hardest thing was running away from her when she tried to hug me!

Abigail Martin is a staff member of St Chad's Sanctuary, Birmingham