The refugees are welcome home!

As part of Brighton & Hove TAKEPART Festival of Active Living, Brighton Goodgymmers participated in a group session organised jointly by our friends from Brighton Table Tennis Club, Real Junk Food Project and the Catholic Parish of East Brighton at the Fitzherbert Community Hub.

Thirteen of the best Brighton Goodgym gang showed up and we welcomed not one, not two but three first time participants: Majed, Nick and Irene.

The session also falls on Refugee Week a festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Brighton Table Tennis Club (BTTC) has become a Club of Sanctuary, welcoming refugees and asylum seekers since 2016 and Brighton Goodgym has always had members very passionate about supporting people from all backgrounds and participating in events and walks welcoming refugees and others to our lovely city.

Personally speaking as a third generation refugee; someone who was born with a piece of paper instead of a passport as a form of identity I think sometimes we tend to forget what the word Refugee means. Refugee is defined as a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster. But the definition tends to forget the human tragedy that comes with the fact that a human is called 'Refugee'.

Being a refugee means that somehow you no longer have a home but at the same time everywhere is home!

You are welcomed by many but the voices of those who dont want you are louder.

Governments don't know what to do with you, it feels like wherever you go you carry with you oversized luggage that exceeds the 'allowed' limit.

If you are having too much fun in your new 'home' you feel guilty because of those who couldn't have the same opportunity, if you end up closing up on yourself to heal your wounds then you are labelled as anti-social and failing to integrate in the society.

You do your best to learn the language of your new home but when you do you realise that you missed out on a history of social references that you have no idea about. Like what is Eurovision? Who is Kate Bush? What is Rhubarb? and dont get me started on sayings and expressions, when I first heard 'The Writing on the Wall' I was looking around to see who and where they scribbled on the wall!

But then when you take a moment and look around you and see your fellow Goodgym people in their red Goodgym tshirts playing table tennis, laughing and feeling jolly after they have completed the voluntary session of sweeping, cleaning and weeding...you realise...that you are home...Brighton is home :)