Based in London, the West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humberside, SMILE supported asylum seeking and refugee separated children and children in families to improve their life chances by helping them to enjoy and achieve in education, and by raising awareness of their specific needs, through mentoring, befriending and school talks.
Here are the stories from two young people who have improved their prospects through working with volunteer SMILE mentors and befrienders.
Befriending A
A is a young man from Afghanistan. He was matched with a befriender in January. He has mild learning difficulties and the social worker who referred him was concerned that A was being taken advantage of by his friends. The relationship has developed slowly with both A and the mentor working out how best the relationship would work.
They decided on a routine of one ‘fun’ meeting and one ‘work’; with the mentor assisting A with his English. A was very pleased to have been told his English has improved dramatically since he has been putting in extra work. The play sessions usually involve going to a favourite café for food, where A has gained confidence talking to the waitress and ordering his own food.
One activity A wanted to try was boxing, which the mentor duly arranged. At the next meeting A decided that boxing wasn’t for him as ‘people were trying to kill me!’ Sometimes the idea is better than the reality.
The relationship has been going for 6 months and the trust between the two people is evident as A talks more freely about his family and is very honest with his mentor about how he feels about living in the country.
At one recent meeting A told his mentor that he had been having some young, British men shouting at him in the local park – ‘hey, are you a refugee?’ A had felt quite intimidated and scared by their behaviour, however the last time they did this to him, he thought to himself: ‘yes I am a refugee, and there is nothing wrong with being a refugee and I am learning English and I want to study more and do things for myself. That is better than sitting in a park, smoking and shouting at people.’
The befriending relationship has enabled A to articulate his concerns and be more confident about knowing what is good for him and who to turn to for help.
Mentoring R
R is a 17 year old boy from Afghanistan. He arrived in Britain as a separated young person and although he has a brother to live with, this brother is rarely in the country and Social Services is not providing support.
R is a withdrawn boy who has not been able to find a college place on his own. He speaks with little enthusiasm about anything in his life - although his eyes light up when he mentions cricket.
A mentor began working with him in July 2009. She quickly assisted him to apply for colleges and accompanied him to open days. He starts at college in September. Once his education had been secured his mentor turned her attention to his hobbies and interests. He is a keen cricket player and so his mentor researched local cricket clubs and then accompanied him to his first few sessions. R is now integrated into the club, making friends and attending weekend matches. Although the cricket season is coming to an end, the club have been so impressed with him that they have invited him to play for their Second team.
Although his mentor feels that that her and R have not struck up a friendship as such and that he is still fairly quiet around her, it is obvious that she has provided great practical assistance to him and helped him achieve his aims. Through her he now has the chance to make more friends his own age both within and outside the refugee community.
Update, May 2010:
Six months on and R and his mentor have stayed in touch with occasional texts. His mentor was delighted to hear that the cricket club was so impressed with R that they offered him the one available international place on their First team. He now regularly plays semi-professional cricket and, since he was also granted refugee status recently, he is being paid to do his favourite pursuit.
This is a real success story that demonstrates the ongoing positive effect of a SMILE mentor beyond the end of the relationship.
