Peterborough community hub celebrates 20 years of helping vulnerable newcomers to UK

One of the city’s foremost outreach centres is due to celebrate two decades of providing support to immigrant communities next month. Peterborough Asylum and Refugee Community Association (PARCA) has helped immigrants and asylum seekers from around 60 countries settle into UK life since it first opened its doors in 2002.

Based at Unity Hall on Northfield Road, PARCA is an integral community hub and point of contact, providing practical aid, emotional support and general advice to migrant communities, asylum seekers and refugees within the Greater Peterborough area.

PARCA’s chief executive Moez Nathu is himself a refugee, arriving in the UK from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. Describing his entry into the UK as “a very hard time”, Moez tells the Peterborough Telegraph that his lack of English made it “very difficult to integrate into society” especially when it came to dealing with social services.

"It took me a long time to understand,” he says, “that this is a safe place; this is a good place.”

Perhaps as a consequence of his early experiences, negativity has no place at PARCA:

“We never learn to say ‘no’ in this organisation,” he says softly; “we only say ‘yes, we can help you’.”

The Queen’s Award-winning hub is open four days a week, offering everything from breakfast clubs and English language lessons to youth clubs and school holiday activities. As a charity, PARCA relies entirely on donations and volunteers to function. Despite this, everything provided by the organisation is offered free of charge.

Moez observes that isolation tends to be one of the most significant challenges newcomers have to deal with.

“Isolation and loneliness [is] a package of negativity - we want to break it down and bring happiness to the people.

“You can see people, they are very upset [when they arrive]. As soon as they step in, they forget that they have a problem, they start to smile and then we tackle the problem.”

Outreach manager Marija Lysak agrees, describing the centre’s services as “an opportunity for people to come and meet others.”

Marija explains that, even assisting with something that may seem trivial to most people – such as resetting some online login details – can be invaluable to a newcomer who speaks very little English.

“Small things make a big difference,” says Moez, nodding: “small things remove the isolation and anxiety.”

Positive can-do approach

Training and employment are also key causes of concern, says Donald MacLarty, PARCA’s Hong Kong Resettlement Manager.

It is hard, says Donald, for even skilled and professional migrants from developing countries to find work in the UK as their expertise and qualifications are seldom recognised by British employers and governing bodies:

In response, PARCA has developed a “very unique” pilot process to help counter this considerable disadvantage.

“PARCA has built a process that’s never been done before,” explains Donald. “We put them into education for their ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) in a very intensive time then put them into a UK qualification. Then, finally, the outcome is that UK employers will take them on.”

This positive, can-do approach has helped innumerable newcomers to Peterborough feel safe, settled and optimistic. A large map of the world poster pinned on a wall out in the centre’s pleasant garden reinforces this view. It is decked with lines of string connecting Peterborough with all the places in the world people have travelled from to resettle in the UK. After 20 years of unconditional support and volunteer aid, there are almost too many lines of string to count.