Project Summary EN

18 used to feel that no matter what the problem was I was on my own and that’s just the way life was. I now know that there are resources, groups and women locally who can help. That in itself has given me hope. I now know that there is support.’ Mehira Ahmed is originally from Sudan where she worked as a journalist and teacher. She arrived in the UK in early 2018 having fled the country with her 4 children after years of persecution, torture and imprisonment by the regime for speaking out against it. This treatment has taken its toll on the family, and Mehira has health and mobility issues as a result which limits what it is that she is capable of doing. Mehira joined the MIE training as this would provide her with an opportunity to meet other women from different countries and cultures, to work on her English language skills and to help her towards going back to work by developing a better understanding of employment in the UK. The Project has allowed her to build her knowledge, skills and confidence, to identify local opportunities for families like hers and to feel less socially isolated. Mehira has developed links to a range of organisations and begun to become active in her community. This has included organising a Ramadan workshop in a local primary school and undertaking high-profile public-speaking opportunities around issues facing migrant women. She is keen to continue her work as a journalist and teacher and is writing a book or traditional Sudanese stories for children. Mehira has said ‘Now I feel more understanding and confident in UK. My English is better, and I have many friends. I make one friend from Sudan on the course. My friend went Sudan in summer and she see my mother to tell her we are well. She gave her some photos. This make me very happy. I cannot write or telephone my mother because of ‘security’. I learn that women in UK are not suffering like women in Africa and they are kind. Women make relationships between themselves. Women can do what they like.’ Fardoza Ahmed is a 20 year old woman from Ethiopia who has been resident in Austria for 4 years. She had suffered suppression in her home country and sought to flee to Europe via Sudan and Libya. She was imprisoned in Libya for 6 months where she was raped and fell pregnant. People traffickers had sought money from her family for her but she was eventually put on to a boat to Greece and ended up in Austria via Italy. Fardoza became involved with the MIE training so that she could get into contact with other women, to have the opportunity to learn by doing and to improve her German speaking. As she has a young daughter, she was keen to get support