Walking With Newsletter

February / March 2016

Happy New Year to you all!2016 is already proving to be an interesting year for us In January we welcomed three new families. That brings the total number of people we support on a weekly basis to 46 adults and 43 children! We are now supporting people from Algeria, Nigeria, Guatemala, Zimbabwe,

Iran, Syria, Albania, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Belarus, Afghanistan, Libya and Palestine. We are aware of another two families needing help and are liaising with their support workers to get them to engage with us. So as you see we are very busy.

This year we are continuing to work in partnership with VODA in delivering a workshop on asylum to the young people taking part in the National Citizen Service. Our next workshop is during the February half term with 27 teenagers, then in the summer when we will have 250 young people! And will follow in the autumn.

There are a few other things in the development stage but as yet these are still embryonic. We will let you will know in due course.

During Lent could you /your church/organisation Give a little to help us?

For Walking With to continue providing the best service we can for all the people mentioned above we really need your help…

Finance is key. Could your church hold a fundraising event for us?

Might you supply any of the following skills, which we need?

-Grant application expertise,

-Pastoral skills

-Marketing skills.

*FOOD APPEAL – WE URGENTLY NEED THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:*

Tins of tomatoes, chickpeas, kidney beans, fruit, custard, and toilet rolls, washing up liquid, biscuits and chocolate. Even if you can only donate one tin of food it will help us.

Please help if you can.

Carole ParkinsWalking With Project Manager

Our Christmas PartyOn December 21st we held our Christmas Party for seventy clients and twenty one volunteers and visitors

The fun started a few days earlier when some volunteers started sorting out food, presents and games. Toys for the children were provided by Metro Radio Cash4 Kids appeal.

Carole and Jim had attended the gift service at West Moor Methodist church, telling the congregation about Walking With and collecting lots of gifts for adults and older teenagers. Lots of other gifts and gift cards

came from donations from local churches and individuals. We also had a donation from Dot and the New Life Christian Centre to buy lots of chocolate! Everything was sorted into a pile for each child and adult and then packed into gift bags. Food hampers were made up and chocolate and biscuits were added. Parcels were packed for ‘Pass the Parcel’ our favourite party game, everything was ready for the ‘big day’.

ASDA very kindly provided £200 for the party food, so the kitchen was filled with the smells of pizzas, chips, and an assortment of bite sized snacks. Volunteers had brought cakes and desserts; the amount of food was amazing!

Some volunteers stayed in the kitchen to replenished the plates, others socialised with our clients. The food was really good and everyone enjoyed their lunch.

After lunch we moved into the back of the church for games and a wonderful time was had by all. The children loved playing pass the parcel, musical chairs, musical bumps and statues. The adults enjoyed their ‘pass the parcel’ too once they got the hang of it! Presents were given at the end and all our clients left with lots of bags, so they could look forward to Christmas.

The best part of the party I think, was watching people, especially the children having such fun, and looking relaxed and happy. It was also a good way of telling people we were there, as a new family was introduced to Walking With and the people who use it through the party.

Margaret Thornley

My name is Clara and I´m 23 years old. I´m a student of Theology in Germany and I came here for a placement in St. Johns Church. When I came to England I expected to get to know the English –something close to life in Germany. Instead I got to know the world at Walking With. I arrived in the middle of October just after Harvest. Therefore, my first weeks here consisted of sorting tins and more tins and even more tins, I have never seen so many tins in my life. Actually that was a sort of introduction to English culture: a lot of the tinned food was unfamiliar. After a few weeks’ other

volunteers started to tease me. My German soul made me really good on finding a system and work very effectively. Maybe that´s the reason Charles once called me “the machine “!

However our work is not always about sorting food. On Monday we run a cooking group, which was a good chance for me to taste food from several countries. So I had Albanian, Nigerian food and a meal from Sri Lanka and of course also a proper English meal. All in all, it was a sort of world tour by means of taste. But our work is also not just about sorting food or having food. I would see it as mostly about connecting. That means offering cups of tea and coffee and chatting. Meeting people from so many different countries was amazing for me especially because I grew up in an area with a small number of foreigners.

At Walking With I have met people from several Arabic countries, from Iran and Afghanistan, from Pakistan and Albania and Guatemala. It was quite a melting pot of languages and habits. It is wonderful and fascinating to experience all those varieties, how people speak to you, whether they hug or shake hands or just smile and wave. It was a chance for me to think about cultural habits at and how some things you consider to be normal are very strange for others.

It was hard to remember all the faces of our clients and volunteers and even harder to remember the names. As I met so many new people in my first weeks sometimes I couldn´t even remember where I had met them -but I got used to it. For me the best experiences were through the conversations we had. Some clients are more political so there were a lot of discussions about the situation of refugees in Germany. We also talked about our our religions and differing Christmas customs. Just last week I started to learn some Arabic. For theological studoes I already had to learn Greek and Hebrew. And Hebrew is in terms of grammar and some words quite similar to Arabic. Now when I´m back to Germany I´m well prepared to work for some refugee projects and I already have an invitation to meet some Syrian clients with whom my parents work.

All in all I had a really great time here. Walking With taught me some good lessons and I enjoyed the work with so many wonderful people a lot. Especially all the volunteers made it so easy for me to settle in. I´m thankful for my time here.

Clara

Easter Egg ChallengeLast year, we were able to give all of the children and adults who use Walking With an Easter Egg.

As we have more clients this year this is going to be a challenge, but one we hope to meet. So please can you donate an Easter Egg(s)

to help us achieve this!

Police GiftWe have been successful in a bid to the Police Charity Fund (thanks to Afshin Malekian the Police Engagement officer!). Consequently we now have a projector, laptop and printer for our use. We have already put them to good use in a training sessions for our volunteers.

Contact Details

Walking With in North Tyneside: based within St Luke’s Church Frank street. Wallsend

Opening Hours Monday and Wednesday 10:00am – 3:00pm

Postal Address: c/o The Rectory, North terrace, Wallsend. NE28 6PY

Telephone: 0191 6498974

Email: walkingwithwcwt@msn.com

Website: www.walkingwith-NT.btck.co.uk

Walking With in North Tyneside