SWINTON COUPLE CROWD-FUND TO TEACH ENGLISH TO ASYLUM SEEKERS
Star date: 29th August 2016
YOU TUBE VIDEO AND CROWD-FUNDING TO URGE PEOPLE TO HELP NEW ASYLUM SEEKERS
Swinton ESL teacher, Max Sumner, has put himself in front of the camera, making a YouTube video explaining why people should donate to his crowd-funding campaign to raise money to teach English free of charge to asylum seekers who have just arrived in the area.
Max and partner, Holly, are volunteering their time but need funds to pay for things like for transport, venue costs, teaching materials and stationery. So far, people have been incredibly generous.
Max Sumner doesn't mess about. As a qualified ESL teacher he's good at explaining stuff and has, bravely, stuck himself in front of a camera and laid out exactly why people should donate to his crowd-funding page to help newly arrived asylum seekers learn English.
He does it by putting up a page of Chinese gobbledygook and asking viewers to imagine landing in a strange country and having to figure out what it all means.
"Imagine if your life and your future could come down to filling out one form" says Max, off camera "It's very intimidating, and then that form is maybe in a language that you're not naturally competent in. I've just come back from China, and when I first arrived there I didn't understand anything..."
Max and partner, Holly Ann Wood, have linked up with Manchester City of Sanctuary, a charity that welcomes people to the area, and are arranging English lessons specifically for newly arrived asylum seekers, rather than refugees who have already had their applications processed or other immigrants. It's a gap that the couple believe needs filling...
"For me, regardless of politics or anything else, these people definitely need help" Max adds "I'm an English teacher and that's a skill I can give, and Holly can do administration so that's a much needed skill she can give..."
While Max and Holly are volunteering, there are costs that have to be met, like transport, venues, teaching materials and stationery which comes to £71 per lesson for twelve people. They set themselves a crowd-funding target of £750 for the first ten week course for a group of twelve asylum seekers and have already reached £635.
There's a perception that asylum seekers are some kind of drain on society rather than destitute families fleeing from the most horrific war zones or repressive regimes but Holly says that in her workplace, ironically called Think Money in Trafford Park, people have gone beyond the call to support the call for donations; while Max adds that even his past employers have been adding to the sum.
To reduce costs, Holly is contacting bus companies in the hope of some sponsorship for travel costs (which happens in Bristol), while she's also hoping to enlist Salford City Council in the project. The venue has already reduced its hire cost.
Once the target for the first batch of lessons is reached, the Swinton couple hope to raise more money for further classes....
"If something happened here, people would want to protect themselves and their families, to make them safe" says Holly "It's just about making it relatable..."
That page of Chinese gobbledygook certainly does the trick...And then there's those horrific experiences of asylum seekers. It's about putting yourself in their shoes, thinking about it and then sticking a few quid in the pot to help...
For further information on Max and Holly's English Language Assistance Fund see their gofundme page click here
RayofSunshine wrote at 09:10:22 on 07 September 2016
Saudi a Arabia. The interesting thing about Saudi a Arabia is that we, The British, created this country after World War I. The Saudi State was an amalagm of the "Al Saud"
Family (an assortment of brigands and rapists)
and "The Wahabis" who practised an extreme, fundamentalist version of Islam.
In the modern era, when considering terrorism from 9/11 to Islamic State, Saudi fingerprints are always at "The scene of the crime"!
Part of the current turmoil in The Middle East stems from the resentment locally of foreign imperialist intervention in the region, such as the artificial,client state, Saudi Arabia.
Such complexities are beyond the intellect of divs such as Common Sense!
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Brexit wrote at 06:26:14 on 07 September 2016
Rayofsunshine. Your right when you say your religion can be a death sentence, all the people being targeted by the Muslim terrorist in Iraq, Syria, Libya are Christians, under Assad, saddam, gaddafi, Christian were free to practice their religion, but now under the Islamist hot heads these people are being killed, but you won't hear about this in the main stream media, because even in Europe Christianity is now under attack, with only Islam being the protected religion. You can take the piss out of Jesus and Christianity, but try the same with Mohamed and Islam and you'll be charged with Islamiphobia .
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Graham wrote at 06:26:11 on 07 September 2016
I'm xenophobic to those who want to destroy our way of life . Keep them Out !!!!!
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Clyde wrote at 18:02:29 on 06 September 2016
Not so Sunshine . Our First Duty is to our own People . Not to incomers whose ways are alien and poisonous to our own .
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wrote at 18:01:48 on 06 September 2016
I do think the Arab States should do more, and I fail to see how the people at Calais are a UK problem? They are a French problem, they are in France. If the French want it to become a UK problem then I suggest we close the Channel Tunnel. Block it off. No more UK problem.
That said, 20,000 genuine refugees is a small amount compared to the size of our country. We should be doing more, but I also think the government is right to take them from the refugee camps closer to Syria so as to dissuade the people traffickers.
I think what this couple are doing is great! Genuine refugees and immigrants should be helped to integrate into our society, we aren't ALL racist or xenophobic!
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Common sense wrote at 18:01:13 on 06 September 2016
Rayofbullshit, not hit a raw nerve have I, the people killing Syrians in Syria are Syrians and Isis, we toppled saddam and Iraq fell apart and led mass world wide terrorism, we toppled gaddafi in Libya the same happened know we want to remove Assad from Syria, so what do you think the out come will be, that's right more terrorism. Sorry, if the Syrian want rid of Assad then let the Syrians do it, when are we going to learn, let the Muslims fight their own battles, just as we in the west have done over the centuries. We value our freedoms in the west because we have spilt our blood fighting for it, freedoms aren't given, there fought for and won, many on the battle field by brave men and women, this is why I vote at every election, even when I feel that my vote won't make a jot of difference, some one made the ultimate sacrifice to give me that vote. If these countries want change, then change has to come from within, just as the youth of the first and second world wars made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms in this country, the youth of Iraq, Syria, Libya and other Muslim countries have to fight for their countries and not as they do now, run and then they want us to do the fighting for them. Let them fight their own wars, their not worth the sacrifice of one British soldier, not when the cowards are running to Europe and causing trouble, especially sexual assaults on European women. Ps on the religion argument you pose, under Assad, Syria was a secular country as was Iraq under saddam, Muslims and Christians lived side by side as other religions did. It is Saudi Arabia which is exporting the terrorist form of Islam "Wahhabism" which is funded by the Saudi royal family to push the Islamification of countries around the world, if the west wants to stop Islamic terrorism around the world, then we need to start dropping bombs on Saudi Arabia, but we won't do that, as most of our top MPs and a number of our royal family are in the back pocket of the Saudis. fact.
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Jake wrote at 12:16:32 on 06 September 2016
Common Sense speaks common sense
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Arnie wrote at 12:16:28 on 06 September 2016
Let the Saudis take them in . Same language and culture . We should be stopping the corrupt instigating wars not just insulting each other .
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RayofSunshine wrote at 09:46:16 on 06 September 2016
Common Sense,why don't you keep your ignorant and retarded views to yourself?
Your comparison between the War in Syria and World War II is crass in the extreme!
Currently your religion can literally be a death sentence! The Syrian State rather than being the up holder of Law and Justice, acts as a sectarian assassin.
We have a duty to assist the persecuted.
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Brexit wrote at 09:57:28 on 02 September 2016
Common sense. Couldn't have put it better myself. To this couple, thousand of kids in this country leave school ever year unable to read or write and you want to teach these people English. These people should be going to Muslim countries where they speak the same language and have the same culture. All these rich wealthy Muslim countries who cry about what we are doing in the west to Muslims, but don't offer a safe haven in there own countries for their so called brothers and sisters . Saudi Arabia spend billions building sky scrapers, whilst watching fellow Muslims die in war zones. Islam, the caring religion
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Common sense wrote at 07:09:06 on 02 September 2016
Hey Sam, how many asylum seeker have you taken in to your own home. Twelve thousand people on the waiting list for homes in salford, ask these people if it's ok for thousands of economic migrants come in and jump the housing queue. On who I have fought, I like most have fortunately not had to, but that is only because brave men and woman in two would wars stood up to the plate and paid the ultimate price for mine and our freedoms, for which I have always had a great respect for our armed forces for the sacrifices they make on our behalf. Just look at Calais in France, all the so called asylum seeker over there, young fit men attacking truck drivers and tourists, pitty they don't have the backbone to stay fight for their own countries. Sorry if these scum who are attacking innocent truckers because they can't get there own way, some have also threatend to rape lone women driver if they don't let them in the car to cross the channel on the ferries, are these the type of people you want entering this country. then what are they going to do if they get over here and can't get there own way. Hope Sam your going to meet them at the port and offer them a room living with you, or are you a typical lefty, not in my back yard.
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Sam wrote at 16:57:10 on 01 September 2016
Hey "Common sense", what war zones have you lived in? What people and countries have you defended in your time?
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Common sense wrote at 09:06:24 on 01 September 2016
People should keep their money in their pocket and not give money to people making a living out of asylum seekers. Asylum seekers should stay in their own country and fight for it, where would Great Britain be today if all the men and woman in the first and Second World War had done a runner to another country, this country has a proad history of fighting for our freedoms, these asylum seeker should do the same. A country is only as good has the people willing to fight for it. Stop running and make a stand.
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