Reflection from Rita

June 20, 2019

One of the joys of working together with others supporting refugees and asylum seekers across the county is that we meet lots of wonderful people. One of these is Rita Rimkiene who runs World Cafe. She has written a guest blog.

‘There is nothing celebratory about the International Refugee Day. In fact, it makes me feel sad that such day exists at all in this day and age. How cruel and selfish we have become that another persons sorrow and suffering is perceived as their misfortune instead of a collective problem.

However, I do rejoice over safe arrival of people into our city. And perhaps in a sense this week is about celebrating peace of the new land where people are resettled with an opportunity to start all over. It is always wonderful and heart warming to see families reunited, people receiving their refugee status, children can be children. I am thankful for those who escaped the atrocities of war, but I am also worried that many are stuck in the limbo and there is no clarity of the future.

Today I celebrate peace for all those that in some miraculous way ended up in our city and thinking of how can we in the comfort of this peaceful country challenge our MP’s, the Home Office, politicians and our own communities, neighbourhoods to see the suffering of others as our own and act upon it.’

Rita