A local charity has launched an initiative to deliver iftar meals for asylum seekers who are struggling with food supplies during Ramadan in lockdown.
The Gap Arts Project made the move knowing that many asylum seekers are self-isolating and experiencing Ramadan in temporary accommodations. These places have either none or very poor cooking facilities, and since the asylum seekers are young, they never learnt to cook for themselves.
Ceri Townsend, Project Manager, 57, said: “The situation of being a young asylum seeker in a foreign country, struggling to learn the language and being away from your family is hard enough.”
“When you add lockdown and Ramadan on top of their trauma to get here on their journey’s, having to wait years to get permission from the Home Office so their mental health isn’t likely to be in the best of states anyway and understandably, they’d be feeling a lot of anxiety in these tough times.”
According to Mrs Townsend, the most difficult part of carrying out the project has not, surprisingly, been cooking enough food to go around for everyone. Rather, it has been the different avenues they have to go through to contact and locate the asylum seekers.
“To get in touch with these lads, we had to go via the different agencies. We’ve been getting referrals from the Red Cross, from ASIRT and the Hope Project.
“They’ve been contacting their clients and checking who needs meals and then sending their information to us.
“The logistics of working out who lives in what part of the city and what routes can we take, all of that’s been a swift learning curve because this isn’t what we would do normally and organising deliveries can be a nightmare.”
One beneficiary of the GAP’s mission to provide a space for young people to express themselves creatively was 20-year-old asylum seeker Mohammed Hassan Rahimi.
Hassan, who lives with his twin brother, left home when he was 16 and his turbulent journey from Afghanistan involved pit-stops in Pakistan, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and France – before settling in the UK in May 2016.
Volunteering as a chef, Hassan learned to cook from his father from the age of 10 in his family-run restaurant in Afghanistan. And to him, helping other asylum seekers who may be alone is important because he knows first-hand how stressful life can be.
“It makes me really happy because I have the skills so why shouldn’t I use them to help others who haven’t got the skills or haven’t got the facilities to do something for themselves and cook for them.
“They’re in places like I was in one of the hostels in Birmingham around the city centre in Digbeth and I didn’t have any choice.
“They used to provide us food and we had to be on time to get our food because otherwise there wasn’t any food for us. Something like that puts these people in a really hard position. If they don’t get there on time, they can’t get their food and also because they are fasting now as well.
“Because I have been helped when I needed it, now it’s my turn to help others.”
Figures released on 5th May 2020, by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab showed there were a total of 32,313 deaths in the UK by Coronavirus – the most in Europe and the second highest death toll in the world.
As a result, GAP delivery drivers have been given extra instructions to ensure their safety while continuing to adhere to social distancing rules. This includes using hand sanitisers regularly, wearing gloves and masks at all times and leaving the food on the doorstep and walking away.
Charity trustee Abbas Shapuri, 25, helps deliver the food packages around the city and is taken aback at how different life is.
Normally a delivery driver would get a friendly smile or chat from customers in return for delivering food, whereas due to the lockdown that human interaction isn’t possible. Now it is about dropping the food at the door, waiting for them to collect, he adds.
“Just before we reach their house, we contact them to say we’re here with the food and that you’ve been referred to from the Red Cross or one of the other charities that have helped them settle and we’re going to leave it outside your door.
“It isn’t the same as feeling them in person and they get a chance to say thank you and there’s that bit of social interaction so in that sense it’s not a substitute but now because it’s like a momentary interaction, you can sense the appreciation and you get to be a part of that.
“Doing these deliveries gives you a new sense of gratitude, that actually we’re able to help out people in circumstances you could never imagine.
“It’s affected us by not being able to go to the office or not being able to see friends and family but I know it’s temporary, whereas for some of these people, they’ve fled wars roughly six months ago and now they’re here starting a new life in lockdown.
“I thank God I’ve had it easy in life in comparison to their situation and they’re almost the first people who get left behind, sadly.”
Mrs Townsend praised the response from the public to the initiative and said the keenness of people to come together in such times and support one another has been eye-opening.
“I’ve learnt that because of this lockdown and virus, people are at heart, really good. We’re all beginning to understand we need each other, that we rely on each other and that we have the potential and the power and the skills and the capacity to take care of each other.
“Even though we’re all closed down into small spaces, what’s amazing is that people’s minds have gone out towards others and imagined the need they must have and that’s the power of imagination.
“And these young people who are struggling have gone out of their way to let us know they’re grateful for the meals and that they’ve enjoyed the food. We’re not seeing them necessarily but hearing from them that such a simple thing like delivering some food can be a lifeline.”
GAP was set up in 2011 and is based at 498 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, B12 9AH.
They are closed on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays but their opening times for the rest of the week are 11am-5pm.
With the donations from the public, The Gap Arts Project are able to provide three iftar meals per week. Visit https://www.thegapartsproject.co.uk/ to donate.
By Shazad Hussain
Shazad is an NCTJ Journalism student who graduated with a degree in English Literature. His interest lies in feature writing and specialises in writing about sport and culture. His work investigates under-represented topics like race, faith and identity in football.
