Refugee and Asylum Seekers Advocacy

Rasa - (n). A loud clear voice that cannot be ignored

The word Rasa comes from the Farsi language, also known as Persian in the West. The Old Persian Empire took this language to many places and influenced many cultures and languages across the Middle East. Farsi is also the language of the great Sufi poets, the most famous of which is the Rubiyat of Omar Khayam.

Rasa - (a).

Rasa is also a word in Sanskrit. It has no directly translatable English equivalent. It has a wealth of meaning to describe a place of love, affection, pleasure, and delight in existence, beauty, elegance and charm.

It is a most beautiful, appropriate and accidental acronym for an organisation that serves the refugee and asylum seeker community in the Wakefield District.

Vision

The principal vision of RASA is to look forward to a time when people forget the labels “refugee” or “immigrant” and see each other as friends and neighbours.

Aims

To provide a focus for support to enable Refugees and Asylum seekers (refugee) to access the basic services to ensure their health, well being and safety.
To provide advocacy which will build people’s confidence to support themselves and promote their quality of life.
To promote their integration into mainstream society.
To provide a community focus where refugees from different cultures can meet to find friendship and share experiences.

Background

Need

As a result of the Home Office’s dispersal policy Wakefield now has a large refugee community: as Wakefield’s second largest BME population (after a settled Pakistani community), refugees presently live all over the district. Although the national trend in the numbers of immigrants seeking asylum illustrates a decline, this is not reflected in the population dispersed to Wakefield. The local authority has retained consistent properties occupancy levels of approaching 90%. Of the asylum seekers that receive a positive decision and refugee status, most remain in the Wakefield District.

RASA, following Perry (2005) emphasise that the needs of the refugee community are very different from those of the settled BME communities.

In 2001, the first attempt to set up the first refugee community organisation named ‘Wakefield Action for Refugees’ did not succeed because of a lack of knowledge about the voluntary sector in the UK and the level of support it received from some local agencies. However, following the establishment of an ERF funded refugee integration project and the arrival of a development worker to Wakefield, the need for a refugee community organisation, run by refugees for refugees, was immediately recognised. Hact’s research in 2003 also highlighted the need for a community-based refugee organisation. This research underpinned Hact’s decision to dedicate the greatest funds available to one project (£25000) towards establishing RASA.

In the past one and a half years, RASA has improved the quality of refugee’s lives in the Wakefield District. Having served over 2000 refugees with only one paid staff and volunteers, many of which were refugees, RASA has proved that it has a vital role to play in the lives of refugees in the Wakefield District.

Following discussions at the first Annual General Meeting, the community demanded very clearly that RASA should have more staff, develop its services, and increase its capacity to respond to the needs of the Wakefield refugee community.

A Brief History of RASA

2003

January
A Multi Agency Advisory Group formed by Community Development Worker for the Refugee Integration Project.

February
Existing refugee activists get involved and project begins to focus on developing their voluntary work and maintaining the self-help focus.

Advocacy was chosen as the most suitable model for the project as existing voluntary work is ‘impartial’– so not amenable to the advice model (also, compared to advice, advocacy needs less formal training, which is difficult for volunteers with limited English)

March
The provisionally named Refugee and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (RASAP) is renamed RASA Advocacy Project, or RASA for short (meaning a loud clear voice that can’t be ignored)

June
RASA received its first grant to enable it to access training, pay expenses, and organise legal registration.

July
RASA volunteers successfully applied for their first funding and receive £1,500 from the Can Do fund, and £2,500 from UnLtd

September
We moved into our first office – a spare room in the Wakefield Asian Community Forum offices – and due to demand we soon take over the meeting room next door as well

October
Eight volunteers completed Refugee Housing and Advice Training provided by the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (Hact)

December
We received one year’s start-up funding from hact’s Refugee Housing Grant Programme (£25,000). The Advisory Group makes way for the new Management Committee.
RASA celebrated its first cultural event (Xmas party)

2004

February
RASA recruited a trainee project worker on a one year contract through Positive Action Training in Housing (PATH). RASA started its campaign for the termination of the charge imposed for furnished accommodation.

March
RASA celebrated its first Iranian, Kurdish and Afghanian New Year through a Norouz Party.

June
We moved to our current office. Integration Project at the Asylum Seekers Unit Team (a team of four operated in various different roles) closed, significantly increasing the pressure on RASA.

July
Celebrated Refugee Week 2004

September
RASA qualified as the first refugee Hate Incident Reporting Centre

October
RASA started to offer advocacy services to asylum seekers whose solicitors refused to represented them as a result of new Legal Aid policy*. RASA is the only organisation who offer help to these people

December
Xmax Party Celebration

2005

January
Furnished tenancy charge terminated by local authority following RASA’s campaign.
The chair of RASA’s management committee, establishes a women’s group “Women Chat”, which meets on a monthly basis to provide support for refugee women. VOX provides £4750 in funding for this group.

February
First RASA paid staff after PATH training completed

March
Celebrations for Iranian, Kurdish & Afghanian New Year

June
Celebrated Refugee Week 2005. Emergency funds received from WMDC for six months (possibly renewed for a further six months).

July
First AGM.

August
Emergency funds renewed to six months from August. Members of “Women Chat” take part in a cultural excursion to Cardiff.

November
Chair of the management committee, Fatemeh Shabram received the Volunteer of the Year award from Community Service Volunteers Agency

RASA Advocacy

About RASA

Vision

Aims

Background

Need

A Brief History of RASA