Opportunities

We hosted a social event for the resettled Syrian families, which was such fun. An important role of the group I am part of is helping them with ideas, opening up opportunities and sorting logistics that the council simply can't stretch to. For example, we're fixing all the family members up with bikes and bike gear, equipping them with tablets so they can connect to wifi and communicate with each other better, supplementing the council's English lessons using a network of volunteer teachers and trying to find ways for them to maximise opportunities for work. All of the above must be so difficult to navigate with virtually no language and when you've lost most of your network and virtually all of the assets you'd built up before the war.

I am particularly excited by the opportunity for one of the women, who is a very talented baker if her creations today were anything to go by, to work with a Syrian pop up cafe. We need to work out childcare and transport to London logistics and then I think she'd flourish.

Basically the only word she and I have in common is 'good' but that managed to secure me an invitation to her house to sample more bread and cake. With the help of the brilliant volunteer translators we will continue to explore this bakery idea. It seems only reasonable that I should vet her entire repertoire beforehand.

The wonderful universally shared joy in bread-based goods.