The Refugee Council is the main organisation
in the UK working with refugees and asylum seekers. It offers advice,
support and training to refugees, and is also one of the main campaigning
voices for refugees’ and asylum seekers’ rights. The Brixton
and Clapham branches of the Refugee Council supported this course
by publicising it and by offering exhibition space at the end of the
course.
Moving Here This is a web-based project run by the National Archives,
aimed at recording people’s feelings and experiences of
migrating to the UK over the last 50 years. Included on its website,
www.movinghere.org, is a section where people can post their personal
stories and experiences of migration, including images and photographs.
Participants on the ‘Culture and Identity’ course
were able to submit photographs produced on the course, and Moving
Here donated £300 towards the final exhibition at (TBA)
This course was funded by Lambeth Adult Learning
Culture and Identity Photography Course
This was an 8-session course in camera and darkroom skills aimed
specifically at refugees and asylum seekers, and funded by Lambeth
Adult Learning. The course took place every Wednesday from 10am
to 1pm at Zoom In. It was an extension of a successful photography
course for refugees run by Zoom In the previous year.
The participants were adult refugees and asylum seekers from all
over the world, referred by the Refugee Council and Southwark
Refugee Forum. Some had been in the UK for several years, and
others were relatively new arrivals. They had varying levels of
English, so there was a language support tutor available for the
first four weeks of the course to help people with any language
difficulties and enable them to improve their English through
taking part in the course. After the halfway stage, the participants
and tutor felt that this was no longer needed.
Participants learned how to use an SLR camera and a black-and-white
darkroom, and produced images on the theme of ‘Culture and
Identity’. Their pictures were displayed at (exhibition
venues TBC)
October - December 2003
