“This beautiful work”: Derby Deanery welcomes the stranger

Thanks to their hospitality, a family arrived in the home they secured two years ago. Derby CaReS has just celebrated the completion of the resettlement programme.

Derby CaReS, as the group became known, took up the invitation of the Home Office’s Community Sponsorship Scheme, requiring them to find rented accommodation and provide  two years of support for a refugee family from a  war-torn country. They put out an appeal to parishes across the Deanery for financial and practical support to bring a vulnerable refugee family to settle in Derby.  

The response was immediate and overwhelmingly generous. The family have settled into the comfortable home which many donors from around the Deanery helped finance and furnish. The children (who spoke no English when they arrived) are now both fluent English speakers and doing well at school. They made a successful application for the father to join them in Derby and are now finally able to live as a family again.  

None of this would have been possible without the support of parishes and individual members of the Catholic community across Derby. Of the £15,000 pounds they raised, £1,208 is left, which has been donated to UpBeat Communities who have supported the family since they arrived and will continue to do so as they integrate further into the local community. The family sends this message to everyone who has helped them build a new life here in Derby: "I thank every team that helped us to do this beautiful work.  My love and appreciation to you."

Refugees continue to come to the UK seeking sanctuary from violence and disaster, including Afghan families supported by the government’s relocation scheme.  Through the ‘Communities for Afghans’ scheme church groups and others can help by:

• Recruiting a small team of at least 6 people committed to offering a warm welcome for the next two years;
• Helping to identify and secure a property to house the family – or even perhaps offer one;
• Supporting the family to access benefits and public services and find work.

If you’d like to explore this with your own parish or others locally, with support from Citizens UK and the Diocese, contact Paul Bodenham at Caritas Diocese of Nottingham, who can help you find others in your area: email paul.bodenham@dioceseofnottingham.uk