Refugee Youth...a space for empowerment.

Refugee, a word that seems to have become the daily bread of the media across the world, particularly in the West over the last few years.

According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is “any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality and is unable, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country,".

But over the years, laws have been toughened enough to stop fake asylum seeking claimants from entering the country, despite the UK’s long history of generously granting people entrance under refugee status.

This has of course made it even more difficult for the millions of people who legitimately flee from their war-torn countries every year in search of a better place to live, where humanitarian conditions are not conditioned by violence.

By fortune, down in South London, a youth led organization welcomes young refugees who arrived here in the UK either on their own, with their families or that were born to refugee parents.

Refugee Youth, is the name of the non-for-profit organization which has been running since 2002. Although the charity was initially founded in 1995 by activist Barbara Melunsky, her friends and colleagues decided to carry on with her community work when she passed away.

The charity’s aim is to create a support network that brings together young people at the very heart of refugee communities, allowing them to build and develop their skills through creative activities.

Every Friday evening, the youth group comes together in Croydon in search of inspiration, support and leadership with, from and by their peers.

Some of the projects they run include drama workshops, filmmaking and music, just to name a few. But since Ramadan has just about started - most of the youngsters who visit the charity are from muslim countries -, the leaders will have to re-evaluate which activities will be carried out during the next holy month; the month of spiritual reflection and intense devotion for those of muslim faith.

The sessions always kick off with a “name game ritual” which goes beyond the normal meet and greet we’re probably familiar with. Everyone in the group has to say there name whilst busting a move. So if you’re not a good dancer, too bad! There’s no shame for the game here.

Doors are open to all young people, even if they do not fall under a refugee status, as the charity is a keen advocate of community work.

As an icebreaker and to get people into a spirit, ever heard of the batch game? Or the chairs game? Well take a seat because chances are you’ll probably end up on the floor.

But don't worry it's not all mentally and physically demanding. There’s also time to grab a quick snack before splitting into the different group's activities.

Whilst they prepare for the session, the youngsters play some of their favourite tunes, a mixture of rhythms and beautiful sounds...from all their different countries.

“Our Ethos is participatory and democratic. It’s not like many youth clubs where it’s basically a pool table and a playstation; you come in, sit down and do what you like...whereas over here you get involved in activities that support young people and allow them to build friendships and foster relationships with people from different communities and cultural backgrounds,” says 27-year old Shanti Sarkar, from Oxford, who is in charge of overseeing Operational support work for Refugee Youth.

“We always try to run activities that don’t need language so music is very big, drama and anything that has to do with physical expression is helpful because that way the young people don't need language necessarily,” says project worker, Malte Gambus, 31, from Germany.

According to Malte, it is much more empowering to give the youths a say in the decision making process and to have them come up with their own activities rather than imposing ideas on them.

“We usually try not to get stuck on one thing, so as soon as we finish the drama project we’ll do something that has to do with another creative form of expression,” he says.

But Malte admits that sometimes meeting his expectations is quite difficult as it can be very challenging to engage young people, especially when they have a language barrier, he says.

Asked about how long the youths tend to stay in the organization, the German born said that it fluctuates but so far this year they’ve had around 100 people come into contact with them.

“Some come every week, then there's some who’ll come once and never come back but we try to always keep the door open physically but also metaphorically anybody can join”.

Refugee youth also empowers it’s participants to look at the problems they encounter, so that they can come up with solutions for their own problems.

Although funding has become more and more limited for the voluntary sector, when it comes to partnerships and collaborations for projects, the organization seems to get enough requests coming through.

But not all are worthy of their time...The leaders are extremely picky in their selection process as they believe a project has to be meaningful and relevant but most importantly to make sure it won’t fall into any misrepresentation or negative stereotypes for the youths.

“Sometimes they come with the best of intentions but what do we really get out of it? Is it a participatory process where they have a say and get to be represented,?” says their Operations worker, Shanti.

“I have to make sure what we get involved in, is safe and relevant”.