Nursery World - Health & Wellbeing: Coming together

A project to help refugee families with children under five is boosting their confidence as they try to settle in the UK. By Annette Rawstrone

Adults and children alike benefit from the learning and play activities.

Asylum seekers and refugees face increasing challenges in London today,’ says family learning specialist Foufou Savitzky. ‘Many are confined to very small hotel rooms and have virtually no disposable income to spend on exercise and keeping fit. This is compounded by deep psychological problems which directly impact on their ability to socialise or access services.’

Savitzky is part of the Welcome Project, funded by Lambeth Council, which works with asylum-seeking families who have recently arrived in the UK and are living in two hotels in the south London borough. The programme, delivered by not-for-profit social enterprise Learning Unlimited, runs weekly sessions for migrant families with children under five and expectant parents. In the first half of this year alone, the project has supported around 120 adults and children from countries including Yemen, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Kuwait, Bahrain and Albania who have escaped repressive regimes, persecution, war and poverty. Learning Unlimited's work led to it winning an award in the recent Family Learning Awards by Campaign for Learning.

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