London Jewish community extends hand of friendship to new refugees

LONDON // Lesley Urbach glanced at her phone and squinted into the sun.

“She’s usually very good on time,” the former career advisor, 59 and now retired, said about Zahra*, just as the 19-year-old appeared behind her, a broad smile revealing two gleaming rows of braces.

After an embrace and over a coffee in Croydon, a borough in South London, Zahra recalled their first meeting, in 2015.

“We went for a cup of tea in a café, and have met every two weeks since. We eat, she shows me nice places,” Zahra said. “She gave me a big UK story book.”

“A history of Britain,” Lesley added.

The two women have formed a strong bond despite their different generations, religions and personal backgrounds. Lesley is a university-educated North London Jew, while Zahra is a Christian village girl from Ethiopia, whose education was cut short at the age of ten.

Lesley’s parents came separately from Germany in 1938 and 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her father escaped at 19. Her mother, 16 at the time, and a younger aunt came on the Kindertransport for Jewish children escaping Nazi Germany.

The two were brought together two years ago through the Jewish Council for Racial Equality’s Unaccompanied Minors Project, known as JUMP; it is one of many examples of civil society organisations stepping in to facilitate and support the integration of refugees in Britain.

The two have met up regularly since the first introduction.

They discovered that they share misfortune: Zahra came to the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee, as did Lesley’s mother and an aunt.

Zahra was 16 when she escaped from domestic slavery and sought asylum in the UK. At 10, she was snatched from her village by people-traffickers and taken to the Middle East, before being brought to Britain to work as an unpaid housekeeper.

Lesley’s parents came separately from Germany in 1938 and 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Her father escaped at 19. Her mother, 16 at the time, and a younger aunt came on the Kindertransport for Jewish children escaping Nazi Germany.

The JUMP programme has been running for eight years and aims to support young unaccompanied asylum seekers and refugees with the kind of adult companionship that youngsters often crave but rarely get when alone and new to a place. In 2016, 3,175 children claimed asylum in the UK. According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, over half of the 21.3 million refugees in the world are children.

JUMP currently has 20 pairs of volunteers and young refugees. Adult volunteer “befrienders” provide companionship and emotional support, and the pair gets a budget that they decide how to spend together.

Vivienne Jackson, the programme’s coordinator, said that the relationship will often outlast the pair’s involvement with JUMP.

“For some, it’s a relationship that lasts into adulthood and it becomes more of a conventional friendship.”

Progress is evaluated every year, and it is entirely up to the pairs how long they continue. Both Zahra and Lesley saw theirs as a relationship that would carry on indefinitely.

“I certainly hope so,” Lesley said. “Our bond is growing. In any relationship you are very shy initially. And then as you get to know each other, it becomes easier.”

“She is like having family,” Zahra said, before reeling off a host of places they’ve visited together, from the London Eye to St Paul’s Cathedral. “I am happy to continue.”

Zahra can turn to Lesley, unburden herself and ask for practical advice.  Lesley is impressed by Zahra’s growing independence and happy to help as needed.

Zahra is learning English twice a week at Croydon College, and Lesley is keen to help her advance. She gave her a notebook to jot down new words, which Zahra always carries.

The teenager recently finished a part-time job as a care assistant, and hopes to go to nursing school. Lesley tries to help her with the practicalities like application forms and advice, something that she -- as a former career advisor – is well placed to do.

“I think if she can really focus on the English, she can make a good life for herself here,” Lesley said.

It’s the kind of connection that project organisers hope to create.

“When it works like this -- which is most of the time -- it’s fabulous,” Jackson, the programme’s coordinator, said. “And at the very least, these young people get opportunities to learn about their new country they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

“My parents were forced to leave their families in Germany. I was sensitive to what it was like to be an unaccompanied young person, and I wanted to do something.”

Zahra is settling in the UK. She has joined an Ethiopian church in North London, which she attends on Saturdays for youth club and Sundays for service. Over Christmas, she took a coach alone to Glasgow to visit a friend, which was the first time she had left London since she arrived.

Their companionship, she said, is “one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.”

And she cited her parents’ experience as an important motivation. “My parents were forced to leave their families in Germany. I was sensitive to what it was like to be an unaccompanied young person, and I wanted to do something.”

She also said there was “without a doubt” an obligation to help.

“I think that people who are forced into a situation where they become refugees, there is a moral imperative to help. And I try to do my bit.”

*Zahra’s name has been changed to protect her identity.

 

This story is part of a series exploring the ways people across the UK are showing refugees and asylum-seekers a #GreatBritishWelcome.