Woman 'learns to live again' after charity support

A woman "learned to live again" after help from a charity.

Asylum Link Merseyside (ALM) launched a zine after a group of asylum seeking women and refugees worked with visual artist Jean McEwan and researchers from University of Liverpool's (UoL) occupational therapy course. The research focused on women as artists, giving visibility to female asylum seekers and their creativity, as they're often marginalised and less visible in public spaces than men.

Following the first International Creative Methods Research conference in Manchester (2023) Jean McEwan spoke about using zines in trauma-focused work. Heather Bullen, a UoL lecturer in Occupational Therapy met Jean and the idea started for the zine project.

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Shani, a former teacher of maths and English, zine participant, refugee and volunteer at ALM told the ECHO: "I’ve learned a lot of things from ALM. I have learned to live again.

"In my life, at some point I lost my hope to live, but found hope for living from ALM. I came to know about art when I came to Liverpool and ALM especially.

“Art for me is love, and all you need is love. Love to live a happy life. Love is everything. Asylum Link is a place to meet with different people, learn a different language and learn about different cultures as well.

“ALM is a place I can say is my home, where I can say my family is there. It’s a peace place for me. I find peace. Family is peace.

“Real happiness does not come from money. It comes from making other people happy and making other people smile".

Shani added: "Our heart and soul is the same. We’re all the same. That’s how I learn when I come to ALM".

Following discussions with UoL and ALM, and the idea for the zine they asked, “where do people go to read positive stories about themselves, in online or offline spaces”.

They felt, "in the face of toxic media discourses about people seeking asylum, people needed somewhere to go to read more affirming stories about themselves". The research and project received funding from Research England through the People and Culture fund at UoL and after introductory workshops the project began and the zine launched on June 27.

Former accountant assistant and logistics worker Adolfine, who took part said: "When I came here, I was not interested in the activities, as I thought they were not going to help me in what I was going through. Later, I started coming and got to see this is really helping me, instead of staying at home.

"I always come and speak with the ladies. We teach one another; we draw something, we cut papers, it helps me to be calm and not to think a lot about what you went through".

Adolfine enjoys mingling and talking with the women group. They share their stories while enjoying different cultural meals and taking part in activities.

Her zine picture had a tree, at the core of it, and symbolised her life. Adolfine said: "It’s so personal. It describes my journey here, my family's journey.

"The roots are very big, because I come from a big family and these are like my ancestors, not forgetting where I come from. I coloured it grey; it means the problems I went through before I came to the UK (and) you can see it starting to become brown; it’s where I get hope."

Adolfine added: "It starts to bloom; put on leaves, this is starting to talk to people, meet people from different countries, listening to their problems. Some of them even helped me with their story of how they got through their stories.

"All the flags represent the people I've met and have helped me. I finally touched it with a sun, (because) at the end of every dark tunnel there is sunshine".

The zine project was not necessarily exploring the trauma but exploring ways how to put that trauma behind, and build resilience. The project created a safe space, ensuring there were trauma systems in place.

Arya Yoosufani, UoL Occupational Therapy student, part of the research team who wanted the project to be "sensitive to gender" to "narrow it down to female asylum seekers and explore their challenges". Arya said: “It's been quite rich the way the women have been evolving in such a short space of time.

“It would probably take years, the power that the expression of art instilled in the group. None of it was forced. Just free expression, and how that has sort of helped the women overcome trauma".

Visual artist Jean added: "I use zine making and collage to help people explore their creativity, and then work it into the publication in order to celebrate what creativity means to the women and what the group means to them.

"I could not believe how much love, creativity, strength and community was in the group. They had so much to say, expressed themselves visually so beautifully, strong colours and beautifully natural forms in many different ways. I feel really privileged to have worked with them".

For information on Asylum Link Merseyside visit HERE

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