Last week (19 -25 June) we celebrated Refugee Week with a full programme of events and activities, working closely as a community with St Mary’ School. Here, Fr Dean offers a brief reflection on just one or two high-flying moments
I’ll call him Hamed.
In typical style, that’s not his real name.
He’s eleven years old and, so he tells me, he arrived in the UK a year ago.
He’s trying to thread a cord through a hole he has made in a kite. The thread doesn’t fit, despite licking the end to make it finer, to make it fit. And so, he reaches for a tool, bores again through the plastic, makes the hole bigger, leans in closer, his eye on the thread and the hole. This time he succeeds, and he quickly ties the thread.
For Hamed, this is a moment in which he shines. The kite making workshop in which the children of Year 6 are engaged may just be another arts and crafts activity, with pieces of the Curriculum creatively drawn in by Miss Fry, their teacher. Science, numeracy, design and technology and so much more is gathered in to this all-day activity during Refugee Week at St Mary’s School.
But, for Hamed, this is a personal moment, a memory, from home.
He has made the journey from Afghanistan. I know nothing of his journey. This is not the moment, and it’s not my place to pry or press. Who knows what traumas would emerge. I simply talk to him and listen to what kite flying means to him.
He speaks in his broken and growing English but what he doesn’t say is expressed by his face which glows. His eyes are wide.
Kite Flying is a national sport and pastime in his home country of Afghanistan and so, for Hamed, this is a taste of home.
Like many things, kite flying was banned by the Taliban in his home country. The Kite making workshop was intentional for us. It formed part of our Refugee Week celebrations for St Mary’s Community, as Church and School worked so closely together. It was one activity which, we thought, would help express our connections with those who are refugees.
At the time of planning, we didn’t think it would connect so profoundly with a child in our school. We thought this would be a learning exercise, a simple celebration that raised and explored some issues. But now our school has 1 in 10 children who are refugees. And Hamed is one of those children.
During the Global Picnic on Friday which rounded up the school week, with children dressed in clothing that was important to their cultures, Hamed sided up to me. His kite had been on display in St Mary’s Church. ‘Can I get my kite now?’ he politely asked.
We walked across the fields of St Mary’s School, sliding through the football mad boys and girls. I pointed him to the open doors of the Church. He ran in and emerged with his bright red kite.
In the days before, the Welsh Parliament had voted against the UK Government’s Illegal Migration Bill. The announcement had received an applause at our event on Wednesday when we premiered the School Sanctuary’s Committee’s video, ‘A Sanctuary Alphabet.’ It was simply an indicative vote with no veto.
In the days after, the Court of Appeal stated that Rwanda was not a safe third county for migrants to be deported. They ruled the Government’s plans as unlawful.
After a busy Refugee Week with so many activities and events, I sped my way to London on Monday morning for the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday as a guest of Stephen Doughty MP. After the event, Stephen gave me a generous whistlestop tour of Parliament and then, as I left the building, I encountered Citizens UK who were organising an action on the Green outside, overlooked by statues of Gandhi and Mandela and so many others.
The action was against the detention of refugee children. “Two classrooms of children could be locked in prison like conditions every day under the Governments proposed bill,” they said.
Two classrooms of children.
I stayed there for some time, became a part of the action, and I thought of Hamed.
I know nothing of his journey – how he got here, how he arrived.
He’s eleven years old and, so he tells me, he arrived in the UK a year ago.
And he loves flying kites.
Watch the Sanctuary Alphabet from St Mary’s School Sanctuary committee
South Cardiff Ministry Area 