By Gemma Driver, Trustee and Communications Lead.

Our team of refugee speakers delivered powerful and deeply moving talks at the packed event last Thursday.

So many people came to hear the speakers that no seats were left, and audience members stood lining the back of the hall to squeeze in! It was wonderful to see that such a lot of people wanted to hear from Chichester refugees about their experiences. Thanks to all of those who came along – I know it meant a lot to the speakers to see you all there. The audience also donated £470 between them for Sanctuary in Chichester – what a great result from one evening!

The event kicked off with Kathryn Crosby, Charity Manager giving a brief overview of our work and a heartening description of why Chichester is such a welcoming place for refugees.

Then came the star attraction: refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Sudan telling their diverse stories of what forced them into leaving everything and everyone they knew, their experiences of displacement and what it means to be a refugee, and how they found the hope and resilience to build new lives here. They all spoke from the heart, with beautifully crafted talks, and the audience hung on every word – as Kathryn said afterwards, “you could have heard a pin drop.”

At the end, one audience member expressed surprise that there is persecution within Islam, and asked Mahmood why Ahmadiyya Muslims like himself face such abuse. Mahmood described how it was put into law in 1974 during the Constitutional Amendment, but he couldn’t say why the government chose to legislate for persecution and insitutionalise prejudice.

Another audience member asked about the speakers’ children and how they were settling in here. Most of their children are still very young, so change is all they have known and Chichester is all they remember, and a couple were even born here. Yalda from Afghanistan has an older son who has settled in so well that he tells her off for speaking the American English that she learnt from films!

Guests were so impressed at how the speakers described their devastating experiences so movingly but with humour and hope, that they have been getting in touch with us to say thank you to them:

“A very successful and uplifting evening yesterday. The four refugees won the hearts and minds of the packed audience – thank you.”

“What a marvellous evening! Well done to you all. Such powerful stories, so brave of you and fascinating insights into your different journeys to get to Chichester. Lots of humour too, and a lesson to us all.”

Talks at Six Organiser, Marilyn Humphreys, said: “That was a very special evening. Our thanks to Mahmood, Yalda, Shitou and Hiba who presented their stories with so much passion, kindness, tolerance and acceptance.”

I asked Mahmood how he was feeling after his talk – “So great!”

Thank you to Talks at Six for this fantastic opportunity for the speakers to tell their stories and spread understanding, empathy and humanity, and for the audience to hear about experiences they would otherwise have known nothing about.