Lots going on at our busy Chichester drop-ins at the moment! Last week, University of Chichester PhD student Debbie spent the afternoon talking and working with some of the women, using acrylic markers to decorate pebbles with insects or whatever they liked, with some fantastic results. Debbie is working on a 3-year research project into the effect of nature-based projects on refugees’ wellbeing, and she sometimes comes to drop-in sessions to run craft activities to engage adults in conversation about the external environment.

Meanwhile, some of the small children enjoyed expressing themselves with felt pens while the older ones played Uno. Then volunteer Gurjit took a few older children outside to kick a ball around. Ben from Westgate Leisure Centre has also offered to come and do some outdoor activities with the children, so we will look forward to seeing him back again soon.

Over in Bognor, grownups continue to enjoy using sewing materials with Sheila on one table, and adult colouring books with crayons and felt tips on another. There’s another table for those who wanted to practice and improve their English using alphabet pictures and words with Miranda.

For the children, there was Play-Doh and puzzles inside with Brian and Karen, who also helped Mike with active play in the garden using the playhouse slide and sand pit. Volunteers needed to supervise at all times, as children’s mothers were understandably deeply engrossed in conversation with each other.

We had English, Dari, French, Arabic and Polish speakers at the last session. There was a lovely moment when Refugee Support Coordinator Anouar met a Palestinian beneficiary who had been a regular at Drop-in but has not been recently. They were able to speak together in their own language – it became quite emotional!