I have been enjoying the Olympics and Paralympics very
much this summer. I’ll be one of those
sad and bereft people when it’s all over – wondering what to do with my
time in the evenings.
As I watched the Paralympic opening
ceremony last week, I reflected on the number of countries represented
there. Krishnan Guru-Murthy and John Snow were
commentating. It was educating as well
as entertaining. As the different
national teams entered the stadium, we were reminded about which ones were war
torn, experiencing political corruption or recent natural disaster. All the countries and all of the participants
were welcome. We were also reminded that
the Paralympics represents what people can do, not what they can’t – showing
what’s possible.
Last week,
we received a visit from an old client of ours, Amir. He’s from Somalia. He has refugee status and has indefinite
leave to remain in this country. He,
like Krishnan Guru Murthy, reminds us of places in the world where life is very
tough. Amir participated in our Trainee
Scheme, helping to serve breakfasts in the morning for all of our clients. As part of the scheme, clients also receive
help and support to look for work. In
addition, staff from one of our company supporters - Veni Partners - run a
recruitment workshop for clients every few months. Amir is now working full
time maintaining our railways – an important role as many commuters will
appreciate. I really hope he does a good
job and I’m sure he will.
By coincidence,
we also heard from another Trainee Scheme graduate. Jack is British. He spent some time in prison and had nowhere
to go when he was released. After
sleeping rough, eventually he moved into a hostel. Jack came to us for help because he wanted to
get a job. He had already reflected a lot on things and wanted to make some
changes in his life. He wanted to become
a support worker. He knew that his
criminal convictions would make this difficult for now but he wanted to do a
job which made a difference.
Jack got a
job shortly afterwards with a sales company specialising in fundraising for
charities. He is delighted and he loves
it. When he came in to tell us he’d got
the job, he looked so smart that staff initially didn’t recognise him. He said “this time last year I was sleeping
on the streets”.
Much has
already been written in the media about the uniting effect the Olympics has had
in GB. Only a few weeks ago the nation
was united in cheering on another Somalian refugee, Mo Farah. We also cheered on Greg Rutherford, Jessica
Ennis, Bradley Wiggins, Nicola Adams, David Weir, Hannah Cockcroft, Ellie
Simmonds and so many more. Apparently we've also been very sporting in our appreciation of athletes from all countries competing in the games.
Obviously
both Amir and Jack have faced a very different set of challenges, trials and
tribulations to Mo Farah and all of our other athletes. However, for me the impact of their achievements is
similar. When you spend time getting to
know people, finding out about their life, find out what problems they have to
overcome, what their hopes and fears are, it’s very hard not to care. Sports commentators help us to feel involved with the athletes by providing interviews, back stories, performance times, warnings about competitors and past injury problems. It makes the joy of
seeing a win and the disappointment of seeing a loss all the greater.
So that’s
why I’m telling you about Amir and Jack.
They’ve done a fantastic job of overcoming their problems and moving on.
It hasn’t always been easy. We’ve all
been doing the equivalent of cheering them on here and we are delighted that
things are turning out well for them both.
We hope you can share a bit of our delight now too.
If you've loved the Olympics and Paralympics as much as I have, you might be interested to know that our clients
have been busy with a project. They've been looking at the impact of the Olympics on homeless people in the
area. Have a look at our Olympic Voices
website http://www.olympicvoices.com/ to see what they found out.
There will be a public exhibition of this project from 14th - 28th November at Rich Mix on Bethnal Green Road. http://www.richmix.org.uk/whats-on/event/providence-rows-olympic-voices/
