UWTSD is committed to creating a culture of welcome for people seeking sanctuary
13.07.2022
The University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s (UWTSD) Widening Access team hosted a series of events during Refugee week (20th - 26th June) 2022 for local school pupils, community members and sanctuary students.
Refuge Week is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. This year the University marked both Windrush Day and Refugee Week to acknowledge the diverse experiences of migration, and how migrants and refugees have positively contributed to and continue to enhance and shape our society today. This took the form of a talk and art workshops for local school pupils alongside planned picnic and games family and community events.
As part of the commitment to removing the barriers to participation in Higher Education faced by those seeking asylum UWTSD introduced a Sanctuary Scholarship scheme for sanctuary seekers in 2021 aimed at people with refugee, humanitarian protected or asylum seeker status.
These scholarships are offered in recognition of the disruption to education that displaced people experience. In 2022 UWTSD announced that it is to offer 20 scholarships to students from Ukraine who have fled their country to help those displaced by war to continue with their education.
Ffion Spooner from UWTSD’s Widening Access team arranged for pupils from Year 6 in St Helen's School in Swansea and Year 12s from Bishop Vaughan Comprehensive to attend sessions by Dr Amanda Roberts in support of the Swansea City of Sanctuary’s Home Away From Home exhibition, which includes work from the UWTSD Swansea City of Sanctuary collaborative Art Project, Art for the Park.
During these sessions, the pupils designed and built origami Windrush boats and pupils in Year 12 took inspiration from learning more about the experiences of migrants and refugees and their contributions from UWTSD PGCE graduate Natalie Jones. This workshop was held at The National Waterfront Museum where Swansea City of Sanctuary’s Traveling Exhibition: Home Away from Home is taking place until Sunday, July, 17 2022.
Nino, a Year 12 pupil from Bishop Vaughan Catholic School said: “It has been really interesting to learn about the different experiences of people who come to live in the UK and to understand more about what people have experienced. The day brought the history and new knowledge to life with something creative and making the prints".
Mrs Gwilym from the art department at Bishop Vaughan said it had been “a great experience for the pupils”.
Miss Stevens from St Helen’s Primary School said: “The children really enjoyed and learnt a lot. They discussed their knowledge and talked about it when they got back to class. The art workshop was great. The children were interested in the Sanctuary exhibition and enjoyed walking through this. The children learnt about the Windrush and enjoyed making boats and decorating them with special messages. It fitted in well with our learning on Refugee week.”
On Saturday June 25 picnics were organised at UWTSD’s Swansea and Birmingham campuses to promote and build a culture of welcome and hospitality for people living locally.
Sam Bowen, Widening Access Manager hosted an indoor picnic at UWTSD’s Yr Fforwm in SA1. She said: "The aim of the picnic was to bring people from different backgrounds together around a common cause, in this case, support for refugees. The picnics will be an annual event but also part of a series of engagements we aim to run throughout the year that reflect and celebrate the diverse range of different cultures and countries that refugees in our university and the city come from.
“Through sharing of food and taking part in fun activities we hoped to bring people together to celebrate community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again, which was especially important this year with the theme of 'Healing' for this year's Refugee week".
Further Information
Rebecca Davies
Swyddog Gweithredol Cysylltiadau â’r Wasg a’r Cyfryngau
Executive Press and Media Relations Officer
Cyfathrebu Corfforaethol a Chysylltiadau Cyhoeddus
Corporate Communications and PR
Mobile: 07384 467071
Email: Rebecca.Davies@uwtsd.ac.uk
