Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

I have been a volunteer teaching English to refugees with the Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group (SWVG) since 2018. SWVG is a charity that supports people seeking asylum in the Southampton area.

Volunteering for SWVG has been such a positive and rewarding experience. Pre-Covid I would attend the multi-cultural drop-in centre in Southampton to teach in person. I loved the spontaneity of it, never being quite sure who would show up and what their level of English would be.

When Covid struck, lessons continued on Zoom and WhatsApp. By then I had three regular students, all mothers. I cannot overstate how inspiring they have been: 

A Somali mum, who had to do the lesson on WhatsApp via her phone with her baby sitting on her lap. For several months I was the only outside contact she had. She was always there ready to try, despite the challenges of a boisterous baby. Looking back to when my own children were babies I cannot imagine trying to learn a foreign language with a baby on my lap. It definitely would not have happened.

A young Eritrean mum with a toddler, who has had to move house at short notice three times in the time I have known her. She has never been defeated by the many obstacles thrown at her and always retains a great sense of humour. She told me once how she came home from a market in Southampton with two halves of watermelon. At the time I was explaining the difference between “hole” and “whole”. She had not come across the word “whole”, so when the stallholder asked if she wanted “a whole watermelon or a half” she thought no, I don’t want one with a hole in it! Hence going home with two halves of watermelon. I think of my own attempts at speaking French in a French market, and my relief when they reply to me in English.

The third mother is Syrian and has two young children. All our lessons have been on Zoom, and she has had to grapple with getting to grips with technology. Again I have been impressed with her commitment. Despite being intensely shy, she has found the courage to join other online speaking and reading classes. Because of Covid it was several months before we had an opportunity to meet in person. I think it is a brave thing to agree to have lessons online with a complete stranger.

Volunteering for SWVG has really brought it home to me that refugees want the same things we want: security, access to education, and employment.

So I decided this year I would do a sponsored bike ride to support SWVG in their amazing work. I wanted it to be relevant. I am aware that refugees seeking asylum have to jump through many hoops. One of the more absurd barriers is that if a refugee wants to submit new evidence to support a fresh claim, they have to take that information in person to the Further Submissions Unit in Liverpool. They are not allowed to post it (though for a time during Covid this did change, and of course the change presented the authorities with no difficulties at all). Without the support of SWVG many people seeking asylum would be unable to make this journey, a round trip of 476 miles costing well over £100 by train.

So on 6th June I will be setting off on my bike from Southampton and cycling to Liverpool. A distance of over 250 miles. If all goes to plan, I am anticipating that this trip will take me 4 ½ days. Using the website Cycle Travel, my route on Day 1 will take me through Andover out to the Chutes to Swindon, Day 2 on to Bidford-on-Avon, Day 3 through Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Day 4 on to Chester, and on Day 5 I will finish at the Immigration Centre in Liverpool. Then to Liverpool railway station and onto a train for the long trip back to Southampton. I am excited about the trip and quite scared too. I am sure there will be high and low points, maybe tears, but however tough it is and however lonely I might get I can remind myself that refugees have to face much tougher, more uncertain and dangerous journeys. At the end of the day I know I have a home to return to.