'Five reasons why I loved the Routes Mentoring Programme - and you might too’

Zara Salih is a business owner and alumni mentor of the Routes Mentoring Programme. She joined Routes in October 2024, to work with her mentee Helen, to support Helen with confidence building and work-related goals.

Zara signed up to Routes, whilst working at the innovation agency Nesta and relaunched her own yoga business during her time on the Programme. In this blog she talks through her experience of learning to mentor with Routes, and how it enhanced her own skillset as a professional and a woman leader.

5 reasons why Zara is rooting for Routes

The Routes Mentoring Programme offers a unique opportunity for you to enhance your own leadership and communication skills whilst simultaneously helping to empower a female asylum seeker/ refugee to work towards achieving her goal(s).

For any potential mentors out there who may be unsure whether or not to sign up to volunteer with Routes I hope that this blog encourages you to go for it.

 A manageable time commitment

The time commitment is very manageable. There are two main training dates and the training is so worthwhile. The exercises are interactive and genuinely thought-provoking. The sessions are delivered empathetically and seamlessly by Routes' fantastic facilitators. You also get to hear from alumni and ask questions to previous mentors and mentees. I found the midway point phone call to be especially helpful and I felt supported with ways to seek effective feedback.

Learning by doing

There are lots of break-out rooms and opportunities to build meaningful connections with other mentors in your cohort. Through the exercises you do one-to-one or in small groups you get to have conversations which deep-dive into a real-life scenario and by employing the techniques you learn in the training you can guide each other to a solution. I sometimes found myself with some of the same mentors and in this way we quickly built up rapport. It was really wonderful when we actually got to meet in person at the end of the programme celebration party.

Learning by doing

Zara with fellow mentor Mareen at the Mentoring Programme Celebration Event, January 2025.

Access to resources

You will learn practical ways to navigate problem-solving and you will be equipped with a wealth of resources which could help your mentee to reach her goal(s).

Developing your leadership and communication skills

You will develop your leadership and communication skills. One of the greatest takeaways from this programme for me was the way it elevated my personal relationships as a result of adapting my communication style. I am conscious of how much more mindfully I hold space in conversations with colleagues, friends and family. I have become much better at getting comfortable with silence, listening attentively and non-judgmentally (the latter which given my legal background is something I can find quite challenging!).

“One of the greatest takeaways from this programme for me was the way it elevated my personal relationships as a result of adapting my communication style. I am conscious of how much more mindfully I hold space in conversations with colleagues, friends and family. ”

— Alumni mentor Zara, reflecting on her time on the Routes Mentoring Programme

Supporting another woman to achieve her goals

Most importantly of all, this programme gives you the chance to empower a female asylum seeker/ refugee to work towards achieving her goal(s). Admittedly, I was nervous before knowing who I would be paired with for the programme and in the run up to meeting my mentee, Helen, online for the first time. And of course some of that nervousness remained with me but by the end of our first session I felt confident that we would work well together to achieve her goals.

During our sessions together I was repeatedly humbled by Helen's humility and struck by a persevering positivity which we both share though we have lived quite different lives. My nervousness soon transformed into excitement as I looked forward to hearing news and developments from Helen in our sessions. Around the midway point I noticed how often I would say "we're running out of time" when I realised the programme was coming to an end. But that's where the beauty of this mentorship programme lies.

Celebration time!

Zara with her mentee Helen, marking the end of their time on the Routes Mentoring Programme, celebrating their relationship and the progress they’ve achieved.

In truth, like all things in life, you will get out of this programme as much as you put in.

Just because the programme was coming to a formal end did not mean that my connection with Helen should cease. I am pleased to say that we have agreed to keep in touch and meanwhile I have already signed up to join the next cohort of the Routes mentoring programme as it really is as good as it sounds.

Routes runs two Mentoring Programmes a year, one in spring and one in autumn. Applications for our autumn 2025 Mentoring Programme are open now! Find out more on www.routescollective.com/mentoring and express your interest.

Founding Director Sabbatical: taking sustainable leadership seriously

2025 marks seven years since I co-founded Routes, during which time we have supported more than 280 women to access employment and education through our award-winning mentoring programme; researched and co-designed interventions to create systemic change in the unemployment of refugee women; and grown to a staff team of six, with many more freelancers, board members and advisors helping us to deliver our work. 

This year, I will be taking a three month sabbatical away from my role as Founding Director. I’m aware that for some this might seem unconventional, or even risky, but research shows that sabbaticals can benefit organisations. I wanted to write this blog to explain why I believe that taking a sabbatical will strengthen the foundations of the organisation, and how I hope it will be a part of creating a more sustainable leadership model at Routes. I hope more organisations can make space for senior leaders to take meaningful periods of rest, and that funders would support this too, not only in the interest of individual leaders, but in the interest of the organisations too.

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The Power of Pause

Last month, Fair Collective published findings showing that 85% of small charity leaders in England experience poor mental health due to their roles. Without adequate structures to support those in leadership to maintain positive wellbeing and do their job well, we are setting our leaders, and therefore our organisations, up to fail. Sabbaticals can be used proactively - not just when someone reaches a point of burnout - to make leadership positions more supportive and sustainable. Support for leaders needs to be improved if we are going to diversify our sector’s leadership in a sustainable way. 

Whilst sabbaticals are common in some workplaces, they remain rare in the charity sector, where urgency often overshadows self-care. Last year I joined the We Are Feminist Leaders training, and found the exploration of urgency culture particularly interesting. Whilst feelings of urgency can fuel us to take action and respond to injustice, we must safeguard against a culture of urgency creeping into the way we work together, run our organisations, and approach our day-to-day work. My sabbatical is an intentional break designed for rest, reflection, and renewal – three things that are not compatible with a culture of urgency. I strongly believe that we need to support leaders to take more time to rest, reflect and renew, bringing much-needed spaciousness to work that can often feel frantic and urgent.

Creating Space for New Voices and Growth

Part of my role as a founder is to build an organisation that thrives independently, and this requires decentralising leadership away from one person. Whilst I’ve tried to take steps to create opportunities for collaboration across the team, our community of participants, and at board level, in practice I often feel that people still default to looking at me for answers. I hope that in stepping back, there will be more space for new ideas and leadership styles to emerge. The team will have more space to make independent decisions, and to bring their own approaches to the forefront, building feelings of collective ownership of the organisation. The board have already stepped up their engagement during the planning phase, and this will continue throughout my time away. In this way, I sincerely hope that my sabbatical will be an opportunity for growth – both for individuals and the organisation as a whole.

Preparing the Organisation

Preparing Routes for this sabbatical has been a long process that has required a lot of my time. I have had the support of our team, as well as our brilliant board, including Yeri Al-Jaf who I am delighted will be stepping in as Interim CEO while I’m away. Yeri has been on Routes’ board for the past three years, most recently leading our Lived Experience Leadership Group. She has such a deep understanding of Routes’ work, and I couldn’t think of a better pair of hands to lead the organisation in my absence. 

Despite our collective conviction in this as a positive step for me and for the organisation, Routes was not in a position to offer a paid sabbatical, so taking this time off has only been possible for me due to securing a Churchill Fellowship in a personal capacity. I know that not everyone has this privilege. In order to implement practices like this, which invest in the sustainable leadership of organisations like Routes, the support of funders is essential. Organisational health relies heavily on the wellbeing of its people, and yet it is extremely difficult to find funders willing to support core costs and staff wellbeing initiatives in small organisations. I sincerely hope that we will begin to see a shift towards this kind of holistic funding in the future.

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Routes has navigated many complex challenges over the past seven years as a small organisation with tight resources and big ambitions. From the seed of an idea in 2017, I am so proud that Routes has become a thriving organisation with a small but mighty team, strong values, a track record of impact, and an expected £350k turnover next year. 

At its core, this sabbatical is about trust – trust in the team and trust in the organisation to thrive without me. In the sector we work in where the stakes are high, the work is urgent, and government policy is often changing for the worse, sustainable leadership is not just beneficial, it is essential. 

I am very happy to speak to anyone thinking about taking a sabbatical – please reach out on leyla@routescollective.com. And if you were hoping to connect with me between April and July 2025, please reach out to the rest of the team instead, you can reach them all at [their name]@routescollective.com. I look forward to returning in July! 

'I feel empowered to do things by myself' - top tips by alumni mentee Helen on joining the Mentoring Programme

Helen joined the Routes Mentoring Programme in autumn 2024. She worked with her mentor Zara, for four months of mentoring. Together, they explored Helen’s goal of building her confidence in English, with the purpose of exploring education and work in future. In this blog, Helen shares her top tips for other women from refugee backgrounds, who might be interested in joining the Routes Mentoring Programme.

What were you expecting from the Routes Mentoring Program before it started?

Before I started the Routes Programme I expected that it might be another online course. But actually it was so different from that and so much better!

What did you achieve together? What progress did you make?

I did a lot of activities with my mentor and the Routes team. For example, I learnt how to write a CV, how to use a computer and Zoom. I know now how to apply for a job. My mentor Zara is like a teacher to me.

Did anything surprise you during your Routes experience?

Yes, I am proud of myself because I have grown in confidence with my English speaking skills.It was also a lovely surprise to meet my mentor - I didn't expect that we would meet in person. But actually we met up in person two times and I really enjoyed the time we spent together. 

What will I do differently from now on because of our meetings?

Now I feel empowered to do things by myself. I am not afraid. Whereas before our mentoring journey I didn't have the confidence to do things on my own.

“Now I feel empowered to do things by myself. I am not afraid. Whereas before our mentoring journey I didn’t have the confidence to do things on my own.”

— Helen, alumni mentee of the Routes Mentoring Programme

In what ways could we have worked better together?

We both found our in person meetings to be much more effective and so if we could do this mentoring experience again we would both prefer to do our meet-ups in person, rather than online. In the end we spent about 50% of our meetings online and 50% in person. 

What would your advice be for someone considering doing the Routes Mentoring Programme?

My advice would be make sure you have a good internet connection*, be sure about time-keeping and for mentees with kids I would say that if you are able to arrange childcare during your sessions you will get more from the experience. 

* Routes provides mentees with tech support, including a laptop/tablet and data, so that everyone who joins the Mentoring Programme, is able to participate fully in their meetings online. Pairs also have the opportunity to meet in-person, for which separate support is available.

Photo: Helen (on the left) with her mentor Zara at the Routes Celebration Event in January 2025.

Finally, I would like to say a huge thank you to the Routes Programme and Team for this opportunity.

Are you interested in joining Routes as a mentee? Routes runs two Mentoring Programmes a year, one in Spring and one in autumn. Applications for our upcoming Mentoring Programme open for mentees in April 2025.

We are also recruiting for new mentors, to join us to work with mentees like Helen. Recruitment for mentors will open on International Women’s Day. Learn more on https://routescollective.com/mentoring.

Voices that lead: how Lived Experience is shaping Routes' future

Across 2024, we embarked on an exciting new journey - creating a Lived Experience Leadership Group! We’ve always been passionate about making sure the people we work with are at the heart of what we do. Over the years, we’ve tried all sorts of methods: inviting people to join job interview panels, co-designing projects, running focus groups, and recruiting team members and board members with lived experience. Whilst these efforts have been fantastic (50% of our team currently have lived experience), we also acknowledged something was missing; we lacked consistent, senior-level leadership from experts by experience. So, we decided to try something new to fix that.

About the pilot

One hurdle we’ve faced in the past when trying to include more lived experience in our governance, is that becoming a board member can feel daunting. The legal responsibilities can be a big turn-off, and for asylum seekers, being a registered director of a Community Interest Company isn’t even an option. We designed this group to be a space where six brilliant alumnae from our mentoring programme can share their expertise without the weight of legal responsibilities. They sit alongside our board and team to offer strategic insights, foster co-production, and provide consultancy-like advice that keeps us moving forward.

One common complaint about groups like this is that advice can sometimes go nowhere, leaving members feeling like their voices aren’t valued. We are determined not to let that happen and so have built in two-way accountability. Every piece of advice from the group must be addressed in the next meeting. This keeps the conversation flowing and ensures members know exactly how their input is shaping the organisation—and they’re empowered to push back if they don’t think we’re doing enough.

We’re also putting our money where our mouth is—literally. Group members are paid for their time, and those who are asylum seekers receive vouchers. We think this is important to show how much we value their insights.

This whole initiative has been made possible thanks to Refugee Action’s EBE Project Planning course, which gave us both the tools and a small grant to kickstart the group. We’re so grateful for the work they’re doing around shifting power in the sector, you can read more about that here. 

What We’ve Achieved So Far

It was great to see such a positive response from our community when we announced the group. We received 28 applications, interviewed 11 fantastic candidates, and ended up with six wonderful individuals. For this first round, we recruited specifically from our programme alumnae, but we’re excited to open it up to others in the future.

So far, we’ve had three meetings: one onboarding session and two group meetings. The group is currently chaired by Yeri (who sits on the Routes board) alongside a rotating co-chair from the group itself. Our hope is that one of the members will step into the chair role in the future, when they feel confident to do so. The group also created their own “group agreement” to hold each other accountable.

After the first meeting, Yeri checked in with everyone individually about how the group was working for them, and we’ve already learned so much. Embedding lived experience leadership into governance structures definitely takes a lot of time and effort to do well, but it’s already proving to be worth it. These early days have been full of energy, insights, and the kind of collaboration that makes us excited for what’s next.

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead, we’re feeling really enthusiastic about the potential that this group has to become more embedded into Routes’ leadership and a more integrated part of our governance. We have two more meetings scheduled, and then a reflection session where the group will help us to define their role moving forwards. 

Creating meaningful opportunities for lived experience experts to lead takes time, effort, and commitment—and we’re here for it. We can’t wait to see how this group evolves and continues to shape Routes’ future. Stay tuned for updates — we hope that in sharing our learning here we can support other organisations to try similar projects and ultimately become a sector that is learning from, listening to, and led by those with lived experience.

This project is part of our wider leadership and governance strategy aiming to ensure lived experience is at the heart of Routes in a sustainable and supported way that gives everyone the chance to thrive in their roles.

Building confidence and growth: our time together on the Mentoring Programme

What is it like to join the Routes Mentoring Programme, and start working together with someone you have never met before? In this blog, mentee Momima and her mentor Kristina share their experiences.

Momima joined Routes to to map her options for work in health and social care in future. However, she first wanted to build confidence in her English, and find her professional vocabulary. Kristina, her mentor, works at Health Innovation East. A trained pharmacist by background, she was paired with Momima, to support her to map her next steps in the UK. ‘Over the course of our mentorship, we celebrated many small victories’.

In her own words: mentee Momima

I’m going to write about the Routes Mentoring Programme, which has positively impacted my life as a mentee. This programme has certainly improved the lives of many refugee and asylum-seeking women in London. It fosters a supportive community, offering additional training and opportunities, while mentors gain compassionate leadership skills. Mentors help mentees build self-confidence and expand their networks.

Four months ago, one of my friends, Ciara, informed me about this programme. I filled out the online form and registered with the organisation.

On the first day, I arrived at the Routes Mentoring office, which was beautifully decorated. I was quite nervous but also excited. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. When I first met the Routes Manager, Tamana, I felt very happy because she was so friendly and cooperative. She introduced me to her other colleagues, who were also awesome. Then, she gave me my mentor's contact details so we could connect with each other. She also provided me with a laptop, a Wi-Fi box, and an Oyster card to help me attend both online and in-person meetings.

Mentor Kristina (left) and mentee Momima.

Celebrating their time together, after four months of mentoring. London, January 2025.

As part of this programme, I met with my mentor, Kristina, almost every week. She is from Greece and has experience working as a pharmacist. Kristina is very easygoing and helpful. She started by asking about my goals and the areas I wanted to improve, such as my English proficiency and self-confidence. She has always encouraged me to pursue my goals and emphasised the importance of building confidence, expanding professional networks, and improving my language skills.

“She has always encouraged me to pursue my goals and emphasised the importance of building confidence, expanding professional networks, and improving my language skills.”

— Mentee Momima about working with her mentor Kristina

The Routes Mentoring Programme has significantly influenced my life by providing personalised support and resources. With the support of my mentor and the Routes team, it has helped me develop independence, build relationships, access opportunities, and set clear goals. It has also had a huge impact on my self-belief and capacity to succeed.

In her own words: mentor Kristina

I also wanted to share my experience as a mentor in the Routes Mentoring Programme. Supporting my mentee has been such a rewarding journey. From our very first meeting, I was impressed by her lovely smile, amazing personality,  determination and eagerness to grow. Together, we set clear goals and worked on practical steps to achieve them - whether it was practising English, or building confidence.

Over the course of our mentorship, we celebrated many small victories—each one a testament to her hard work and resilience. It’s been so fulfilling to witness her not only improve in her skills but also embrace new challenges with unwavering determination. The bond we’ve built over time has been incredibly special, and I truly feel honoured to have been a part of her journey.

Picture: Momima and Kristina (with red party hats) with fellow mentors and mentees at the Celebration Event.

 As a mentor, I’ve not only been able to provide guidance but also learned so much in the process. I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the challenges refugees and asylum-seeking women face, and it’s given me a new perspective on resilience and perseverance. Watching my mentee grow in confidence, improve her skills, and take steps toward her goals has been incredibly inspiring. It's been a privilege getting to know her and watching her grow!

“[As a mentor...] I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the challenges refugees and asylum-seeking women face, and it’s given me a new perspective on resilience and perseverance”

— Mentor Kristina, about her learnings on the Routes Mentoring Programme

The Routes Mentoring Programme has been a truly transformative experience for both of us. It creates a space where women can build their independence, form meaningful relationships, access opportunities, and set achievable goals. For me, it’s also been a chance to grow as a compassionate leader and give back to the community in a way that’s both personal and impactful.

This programme has had a lasting impact on both my mentee’s life and mine. It’s not just about supporting someone—it’s about sharing in their journey, their challenges, and their triumphs. It’s a wonderful example of how mentorship can foster hope, confidence, and a sense of belonging, and I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an incredible initiative.

Are you interested in joining the Routes Mentoring Programme as a mentor? Applications for our autumn programme open on the 8th of March - International Women’s Day. Applications for mentees open later in Spring. We run two Mentoring Programmes a year, working with over 50 participants each Programme.

'She encouraged me to think about what I need' - the mentoring journey of Chaza

Chaza is a trained nurse from Jordan, who joined the 13th Routes Mentoring cohort. She was paired with Afra, who is Senior Advisor at Health Innovation East. Together, they embarked on 4 months of mentoring, to work on Chaza’s goal of requalifying for healthcare work in the UK. In this blog, Chaza describes her experiences with mentoring and the importance of confidence building in finding your motivation.

I graduated in 2020 with an associate nursing degree in Jordan. After moving to London, I found myself feeling lost and unsure of how to navigate my path toward becoming a nurse here. I needed guidance from someone who understood the education system and job market in the UK and could help me figure out how to use my qualifications effectively.

That’s when I discovered the Routes mentoring programme—and the right person to guide me! Before meeting my mentor, Afra, I felt a bit nervous, but that nervousness quickly disappeared when I met her. She was incredibly kind, calm, and supportive, which made me feel comfortable right away.

Throughout this journey, Afra has helped me think through my options and has provided invaluable support. One of the things I’m most grateful for is how she continuously reminds me to take care of myself and prioritize my own needs. She encouraged me to think about what I, Chaza, need—rather than focusing entirely on other people or my responsibilities. At the same time, she never stopped motivating me to keep going, even when things got tough. Our meetings not only gave me guidance but also helped me practice my English and build my confidence.

“It has been a transformative experience that has not only provided me with practical advice but also empowered me to believe in myself and my potential.”

— Mentee Chaza

Thanks to this programme and Afra’s encouragement, I now feel more equipped and hopeful about my future as a nurse in the UK. After these meetings, I finally have clarity on what my next steps are and what I need to do to achieve my goal of becoming a nurse in the UK. With the guidance and support I’ve received, I feel more confident and ready to move forward on this journey.

Picture: Chaza (top middle, without party hat) and fellow mentors and mentees at the Celebration Event.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Routes mentoring programme for this incredible opportunity. It has been a transformative experience that has not only provided me with practical advice but also empowered me to believe in myself and my potential.

Are you interested in mentoring with Routes? Our award-winning Mentoring Programme runs twice a year, and is a learning opportunity for both mentors and mentees. You’ll be matched with another professional - in a bespoke mentoring pair, based on your shared interests, expertise and learning goals.

Applications for mentors for our autumn cohort open on 8th March (International Women’s Day). Applications for mentees also open in Spring. Please visit www.routescollective.com/mentees for more information.

Celebrating our 13th mentoring cohort: 'What's hanging in the air'

On Wednesday 29th January 2025 - which also marked Chinese New Year as we entered the year of the snake - we organised the Celebration Event for our 13th Mentoring Cohort. It was a beautiful evening that brought mentors and mentees together in person, giving everyone a chance to reflect on the programme and mark the web of connections that have been created through working together.

Below is Wieke’s poem ‘What’s hanging in the air’, which was read at the celebration event to mark this moment. It’s inspired by the individuals and their experiences on the programmes, and also captures the external local and global events that took place during these 4 months.

What’s hanging in the air
For the 13th Routes Mentoring Cohort, January 2026

We tell our children
The stars will look after them
But what if we can’t see the stars

We encourage children to dream big
But what if a bunch of tech-savvy guys
Take that cue and aim for Mars

What if what is hanging in the air

Is storm
Hay fever
And uncertainty

What if employment is a distant dream

Without the right to work
And pathways of clarity

This is when we get together
When we pool our privileges and resources
Our expertise and connections

For making waves across a London
That’s banking on the Thames

This is when we try for a tripod
And a light box

To paint new pictures
Share new dishes

This is when we meet with other women
To share our wishes

This is when what is hanging in the air
Is not left unsaid – but listened to

When we listen with intent
And speak words of encouragement too

For we all understand the importance
Of autonomy

Of being able to make your own decisions
Follow your passions
With your own precision

Provide for your family

To live a life of dignity
In a country
Where refugee rights
Need to be restored

Where what is hanging in the air -
Is our opportunity

For individuals
Businesses
Organisations

To get on board

When we build our own technologies
Of relationships and community

Of accessible opportunities
To bring new professionals on board

In healthcare and psychology
In finance, college and university
In hospitality and content creation

As we do our own design thinking
Receive good news
Or are kept waiting

When we celebrate winter solstice, and Christmas
Missing those that are usually with us

In the cold, and the dark, and the sunlight
Of this moment

This is when we tell each other

We get to pursue our goals
We get to pick our own stars
And build support around them

Build a fire, that is keeping us warm
That can light up, instead of burning down

For we all know the value of a cease-fire
Holding in our hearts this widespread solidarity
This wish of safety for all

As we have seen, in one country, a liberation
Knowing the meaning of ‘hob’, meaning freedom

Where we can focus on building, not breaking
Where we can work on crafting, and making

At this Lunar New Year
We need this wisdom
Of reptile transformation

Like the snakes who circle and circle
Like the moon illuminates
And the wood of trees can stand tall, if we let them

We know
We have been building this something
Made up of strength, and courage, and shared learning 

That no crypto coin can ever monetise
That can only be nurtured, and mentored

For what’s hanging in the air tonight

Is a bold determination
To the power of our connection

And women making waves
Of finding new ways
To building new lives

That can hold us all together

That can hold all the places
That we are a part of

And that the stars
Will be happy
To shed their light on 

Call to action: what we can all do to support the human rights of those affected in the Middle East and globally

Today, we are sharing a statement about the importance of accountability under international law - and what we all can do, as UK residents and citizens, to demand the UK uphold its international legal duties. 

This statement from Routes comes in a week, in which we have seen further attacks on civilians in the North of the Gaza Strip, whilst there has been an unprecedented forced entry into a UN peacekeeping base in South Lebanon. The incessant bombing also creates further risks for those who survive: the release of asbestos is cancer-inducing and will have long-lasting impacts on civilians for years to come.

At Routes, we feel the impact of the further escalation in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider Levant region in our community. We have also seen a lack of accountability under international law, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which also has a direct implication for the UK Government.

We call for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and an end to the UK’s complicity in the violence through arms sales and diplomatic support. 

We are committed to standing in active solidarity with everyone experiencing violence and displacement. We recognise that calls for a ceasefire, calls for accountability under international law, and calls for refugee rights are all part of the same picture.

Whilst our statement today has a focus on the Levant region, we recognise that calls for non-discrimination and equal application of the law should be for everyone.  We keep in our thoughts everyone in our community who are affected by events in Sudan, Ukraine and other regions of the world. No-one is free until everyone is free - and we’ll be sharing resources that are relevant for supporting safety for communities in the Middle East and beyond. 

We invite everyone reading this to be part of this commitment.  Please find below a few resources and ways to engage: 

• Join the workshop ‘How to talk about Palestine’ organised by Shado Mag and Makan Rights, on Wednesday 23rd October, from 7:30 - 9 PM on Zoom. 

• Message your Member of Parliament and the UK Foreign Office. You can do this if you are a resident in the UK, with a UK postcode. Many organisations have templates available, that you can use to share your concerns and calls to action. 

• Attend national demonstrations happening in your area. Follow Palestine Solidarity Campaign to find out when and where they are happening. You can also borrow a banner from London Protest Banner Library to take to the marches. 

• Keep educating yourself, by following organisations and individuals who are sharing relevant updates. A good place to start might be this post from Give Your Best, or the British data journalist, writer and illustrator Mona Chalabi, who shares important infographics about the situation in Gaza, the Levant, Sudan and more.

• See if there are local campaigns that you can support. Change is built by millions of people acting simultaneously at lots of different levels - locally, nationally and globally.

• Maintain grounding practices that allow you to stay engaged. Those of us who are not directly affected or from affected communities need to ensure that we do not get numb by the current news cycle. Instead, we need support structures so that we can continue to engage and keep speaking out for human rights and human dignity. 

• Uplift the work from organisations such as Healing Justice London and Shubbak Festival, who are organising support spaces for affected communities, as well as embodied rage spaces, for material arts to be used to process rage in community.  

• If this is possible for you, please support people who are directly affected via direct aid initiatives, or by supporting relief organisations to do their work.

We want to live in a world that doesn’t force people from their homes, but will also continue to fight for the rights and dignity of displaced people worldwide. We hope you join us in this commitment, in a volatile time where it is important to speak up. 

If you are safe and able to do so, please make sure the current news is part of your daily conversations - with work colleagues, in your local communities, and in other groups where you hold power or influence.

In this important time for human rights, we need to work together to keep the UK Government, and other actors, accountable for their duties under international law. 

There is not one way of getting engaged - there are many ways to do so, from political to creative - and we need all of your talents, as we pull our resources together for a better world, in which people can live in safety and free from violence.

Statement on the far-right riots

The past few weeks have been filled with fear as migrants, Black folks, people of colour and Muslims are being targeted by far-right violence across the UK. We stand in solidarity with all those affected, everyone who’s been counter-protesting, and those working to ensure those in asylum accommodation are protected from the rioters. At Routes, we remain committed to supporting people from asylum and refugee backgrounds in the pursuit of a fairer and more welcoming asylum system. We will continue our efforts with even greater determination, in the face of these events.

We also feel it’s important to do more than just put out a message of solidarity. Here are some resources, care sessions and organisations we want to amplify:

• Healing Justice London are offering spaces for breathwork and embodied rage that centre racialised and global majority people. Please spread the word for anyone that might benefit from these.

• Muslims Against Facism have created an Allyship in the Workplace resource. We encourage you to read it and use it to advocate for your employer to do what it can to care for people affected

• Support organisations like Hope Not Hate and Stand Up To Racism who have been organising counter protests and resources to support those working with and living in places targeted by violence. 

The violence we are currently seeing has not started overnight; it is the product of years of racist ideologies and demonising rhetoric in our politics and media. It’s no coincidence that the riots have been targeting asylum accommodation. 

Routes has a 45 minute talk about the asylum system that we are offering to organisations for free in light of recent events. The talk provides a clear and accessible overview of the entire asylum process, delving into legal terms and definitions, exploring the meaning of 'refugee' and dispelling misconceptions. 

Please contact hello@routescollective.com for more information and to schedule. We hope that in this small way we can contribute to stopping the spreading of misinformation that fuels the horrific, but unfortunately not surprising, events we’ve seen over the last few weeks. 

Routes Mentor Mel: acknowledging other people's skills and power

Mel Ramasawmy is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Queen Mary University of London. She joined Routes for our 12th Mentoring Programme, which consists of training for mentors and practical learning in supporting a fellow refugee woman as a mentee. Mel was paired up with Saba, and supported her mentee on goals related to higher education. In the meantime, she worked on her own personal confidence and leadership skill set for being an inclusive leader. In this blog, Mel reflects on her time on the Programme and the key areas of growth.

Anticipating the journey

I started my journey with Routes feeling both excited to start a new mentoring relationship, and nervous about having an appropriate response to the challenges that my mentee may have faced. The information and training provided by Routes was invaluable in understanding the current context for refugees in the UK, and the responsibilities and boundaries of the mentoring. When I was matched with Saba, and learned that she wanted to return to higher education, I felt hopeful that I might be able to share some relevant experience, as a health researcher working at a London university.

In my own career, I have benefited from the insights and encouragement of mentors in the past. This has come in many forms such as: providing a safe space to share my worries; being a touchpoint for me to measure and acknowledge growth; advocating for me (or giving me a friendly push to advocate for myself!); and providing guidance on how to navigate career development in different professional cultures.
This is something I wanted to pay forward.  

Meeting for the first time

I suggested the Wellcome Collection as the location for our first meeting. Exploring the exhibitions on science, medicine and art allowed us to talk in a relaxed way and find things we had in common. Afterwards we sat in a quiet area and talked about our reasons for joining the Routes programme and how Saba was hoping to benefit from it. We thought of some potential actions we could take over the next ten weeks which would move her closer to her goal.

In our time together we have continued to explore medical exhibitions in London as well as meet online for more focussed sessions, such as writing a CV and personal statement.

Holding space for goal-related work

A big theme across our time together has been dealing with delay. I feel like we both learned to appreciate the value of taking small steps towards progress, rather than moving rapidly towards our goals.

Saba has had to overcome a number of barriers before applying for the Master’s course that interests her. ‘Sitting in the waiting room’ is difficult and it can be hard to remain motivated. Although the experiences and challenges are very different, this resonated with me as academic careers are precarious and require living with uncertainty.

One of my worries at the start of the programme was about making suggestions and recommendations that come from a place of privilege and which might not be possible for others. I drew on some of the reflective tools and skills from the training days, to help me find an approach that was about providing a supportive space, rather than solving problems.

Acknowledging other people’s skills and power

As Saba and I reflected on our experiences together to write our blog (they wrote a brilliant blog together about their shared learning, which you can find here), I was touched to hear that she had found this helpful in acknowledging her skills and power. One of my aims in participating in the programme was to explore tools and leadership styles that felt authentic to me as a person. The trust and openness Saba showed me while working together, has helped build my confidence too. 

As a researcher, I am interested in how differences in access and use of health technology may contribute to unfair and avoidable differences in health across the population. To understand what happens in the ‘real world’, the ability to work with people from a wide variety of backgrounds is crucial. Good research in health takes a ‘Patient and Public Involvement’ approach, which means that people with relevant experience contribute to what questions we ask, how we do the research, how we share our findings and what we do with them. I hope that utilising inclusive leadership practices, to acknowledge the expertise of people with lived experience, and involve them in decision-making, can help make these relationships more meaningful and improve the relevance and impact of our research.

I am proud of what Saba has achieved in this short time, and feel fortunate to have played a small part. I’m excited to see what she achieves over the next few years!

As mentioned, Saba and Mel also wrote a great blog together, in which they explore their thoughts on education, goal-setting and confidence building. You can read their reflections on their time together here.

Routes mentoring pair Saba and Mel in conversation about education, goal-setting and confidence-building

Mentee Saba and mentor Mel met on the 12th Routes Mentoring Programme. They were paired up to work on Saba’s goals, related to her next steps in education. Reflecting on their time together, they’ve written a conversation about their main take-aways from four months of mentoring. A conversation about setting goals, building confidence and advice for new mentees!

Saba: I'm so happy I joined this programme. It's a great opportunity for me to learn about different topics, gain valuable skills and build great relationships with people from different backgrounds and ethnicities.

Last year I wanted to apply for a Masters course at University, but I didn’t feel like I had the skills yet. I joined the programme to get support in understanding the UK academic system and getting my application ready. At the start of the programme we set goals like working on my CV and personal statement. We even set an ambitious goal of applying for a course - which I managed to do!

Mel: A friend recommended Routes to me as she knows I enjoy mentoring. I was thrilled to be matched with Saba who is passionate about her subject and how it can help people. It was one of many things we found we had in common, and as a health researcher at a London university, I felt I had relevant and useful experience to support Saba to achieve her goals.

Saba: I was always afraid to do things by myself. I thought I wasn't capable of doing anything on my own.

My mentor helped and encouraged me - she gave me an understanding of how someone can have many skills, but they need someone to encourage them and trust them so they can show themselves. And also how we can accomplish difficult things together.

Mel: Many of us struggle to talk about ourselves, our strengths and the things that drive us - they just ‘are’! Working with Saba on her personal statement we had a go at thinking about our strengths and how they related to our work. We’re both close with our families and laughed about how differently they might describe us! I’m glad that through these conversations Saba was able to appreciate how many skills she has developed through her life, and how she can use them to accomplish her goals.

Saba: My mentor used to listen to me and try to help me to achieve even more than what I asked for. Going through the migration system is not easy. I used to tell my mentor I don't feel great and I'm trying not to get down. She helped me a lot with that - she listened to me when I needed that and tried different ways to encourage me to get out of that mood and try to achieve my goal.

Mel: Our first reaction on hearing about someone’s experiences can be try to ‘do something’. I’ve learned that the value of mentoring, particularly when the challenges mentees have faced are too big to change alone, can be about providing a supportive space. 

All the credit for progress towards her goals has to go to Saba. She has worked hard to research and prepare herself to apply for her Masters programme, and has taken the brave steps to be open and ask for help. It has been lovely spending time together and watching her confidence grow.

“Our first reaction on hearing about someone’s experiences can be try to ‘do something’. I’ve learned that the value of mentoring, particularly when the challenges mentees have faced are too big to change alone, can be about providing a supportive space. ”

— Mel, Routes 2024 mentor

Saba: My advice to mentees is to believe in yourself, you are really powerful. Just trust yourself and your mentor! What I liked the most about the programme is that they connect you with a professional mentor to support you and guide you to explore the skills you already had and to gain other skills from the sessions you provide.

“What I liked the most about the programme is that they connect you with a professional mentor to support you and guide you to explore the skills you already had and to gain other skills from the sessions you provide.”

— Saba, Routes 2024 mentee

Saba and Mel were part of the 12th Routes Mentoring Programme, running from April to July 2024. They will both become part of the Routes mentoring alumni community, with continued access to goal-related resources.

Want to learn more about Mel’s learning as a mentor and a leader? The Routes Mentoring Programme is designed as an immersive learning programme for mentors, of which mentoring is an integral part. You can read more about Mel’s experiences of the training components of the Programme in her blog here.

Are you interested in joining Routes as a mentee? We run two Mentoring Programmes a year, with support on goals related to education, employment and confidence - please find more information here.

Insights from the Routes Mentoring Programme: on mentoring and symbiosis

Honor Poulton is Senior Associate at Trinity Group Limited. She joined Routes for our 12th Mentoring Programme, starting in April 2024 with training and mentoring. Honor supported her mentee with her next steps for university, including getting ready to start studying and exploring scholarship options.

Honor herself studied Human Sciences as an undergraduate degree - a combination of social and biological sciences. For this blog, she goes back to her student days, to think about mentoring through the biological metaphor of ‘symbiosis’. Building on reciprocity, interdependence and independence, the Routes Mentoring Programme is designed to support mutual learning and growth. Please find Honor’s observations below.

Biology featured heavily in my undergraduate degree of Human Sciences. One biological metaphor I've been considering when I applied for Routes and throughout the Routes programme is the process of symbiosis. 

Broadly defined, symbiosis describes a close and often long-term interaction between two different organisms.

There are different types of symbiosis: negative, termed parasitism where one organism benefits at the expense of the other; neutral, commensalism when one organism benefits while the other is neither helped nor harmed, and crucially most common in the animal kingdom, mutualism, whereby both organisms benefit from the relationship. 

Mentoring, in its purest form, is designed to allow for mutualism - two different people, mutually benefitting from a relationship though sometimes in varied ways. Just as in nature where symbiosis is vital to population and community dynamics in an ecosystem, so too is mentoring part of the mutualism required to build productive, positive, and long-lasting relationship dynamics. This is all the more important in our society, where all too often we do not make the time or space to support one another, challenge our perspectives and truly reflect and introspect on our goals and ambitions. 

Reciprocity

Relationships require reciprocity. The Routes Programme builds on this foundation, supporting relationship-building from the start. Forging a connection between two women who from the outset are completely unknown to one another can be daunting for both mentor and mentee. But there are ways around that, by spending a lot of time getting to know each other in the first meetings.

One icebreaker I've always loved doing when meeting someone for the first time is a straightforward game I was once taught. You have 5 minutes to come up with as many things in common as you have with the other person. I did this exercise with my mentee during our first meeting and we soon found we shared significant and insignificant similarities. From icebreakers and conversations, a relationship was formed, and the foundation of reciprocity established. 

Over the course of the mentoring sessions, different objectives evolve: we explored the goals my mentee wanted to work on, and what we can do in the mentoring sessions to support her with that. Doing so from a point of view of reciprocity supports the mentee's acquisition of knowledge, skills, and guidance in a way that feels grounded in the shared space that we were creating. This is mutualism, as it benefits the mentor, too. As a mentor, one of the most valuable takeaways is often the new perspective and ideas that a mentoring relationship can bring. Encouraging self-reflection in your mentee, organically encourages internal introspection. For me, this has certainly also challenged the way I listen and speak to myself. 

Being part of the wider Routes mentoring cohort, surrounded by other women with different expertise, careers and passions also provided me with the opportunity to listen and learn from their experiences. Here too, reciprocity was an important part of the mentoring training sessions

For example, we did one activity where we shared where we feel we are on our leadership journey and where we would like to be, and discussed with one another the tools and learnings that each of us could develop in order to grow and develop as a leader. The Routes community encourages both mentors and mentees to lean on one, and build reciprocal relationships across the Routes network, throughout the mentoring journey. 

Interdependence and independence

We are all closely connected as human beings, but we might not always live our lives as such. Living and working in London often forces you to become highly independent, and I am certainly guilty of having become a less friendly and more outwardly hostile since living here. Stepping into the training and mentoring at Routes has nudged me into a different practice of being and skills building: mutualism.

The mentor-mentee relationship often involves interdependence - you have to work together to achieve the goals you have defined. Conversely, it also necessitates independence, as a programme like Routes’ encourages you to build personal confidence and resilience. Relying on others is necessary to learn, but you must also be able to rely on and trust yourself and your abilities.

Long-term interactions

Mutualism requires long-term positive impact of some sort. Though the mentor-mentee relationship on the Routes Mentoring Programme does not necessarily continue past the 10 hours frame, the process is designed to inform and offer perspective and power to professional and personal interactions for both the mentor and mentee. In this sense, what could be considered a short/medium term programme provides a significant and sustained impact on both participants in a pair moving forwards.

Mentoring is not a one-way process. Instead, building upon the foundation of trust and respect, both mentee and mentor gain insight and learn and benefit in ways they may or may not have anticipated.

Two different people are drawn together to help one another - and this is exactly what we need more of, as in order to create and sustain communities, we first need to start with building mutualism into our interactions with one another.

Are you interested in joining to mentor with Routes? Read more about this immersive leadership programme here.

Refugee Week 2024: Banner Making Workshop

As part of Refugee week 2024, Routes organised a Banner Making Workshop with artist Aram Han Sifuentes. 

The UK has a long history of using banners as a tool for activism, as a way of people expressing themselves, and a means for people to share their stories. Banners were made by all sorts of organisations that had a marching tradition, but perhaps particularly most recognisable will be the trade union banners of the labour movement. Looking back on the history of banners in the UK, we can see the history of the struggles that people have fought for; to support the miners strikes, to protest nuclear war and poll tax, and to secure many of the worker rights we all have today. 

The asylum system that we currently have in the UK has been designed to create a hostile environment for those who are seeking safety. In the last few years we have seen countless bills passed through parliament that have made conditions worse, culminating in the recent Rwanda Bill. There have been many campaigns, protests and solidarity efforts in an attempt to change things, and the fight continues. 

This Refugee Week, we invited participants to create their own banners, with a slogan of their choice. 

Protests are not a safe place for everyone; for asylum seekers, or anyone with insecure immigration status, the consequences of being arrested could be deportation. And with the increase of police powers at protests under the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, the risk of arrest at protests has increased. Our hope was that this workshop gave everyone the chance to make a banner, and get involved with the issues that they care about, regardless of whether they feel able to go on a march. The workshop itself was centred around creativity, fun and self-expression. 

We were honoured to be joined by artist Aram Han Sifuentes, who runs banner making workshops as part of their Banner Lending Library project. In Aram’s own words:

Banners are a way for me to resist what is happening in the United States and in the world. It is a way to put my voice out there and not stay silent. I cannot be silent. However, as a non citizen and a new mother, I cannot always go to protests. And in these workshops I realized that there were many people who came because they needed to find a way to participate, resist, and speak up but also couldn’t always go to protests because they too were mothers, non-citizens, undocumented- those who would be at great risk if caught up and arrested. My protest banner making workshops has become a place where people come together in solidarity through making. And making is, in and of itself, a form of resistance.

Here are the beautiful banners made by participants in our workshop

You can read more about Aram’s work, and lending libraries here. 

If you are a refugee or asylum seeker and worried about your rights when attending protests, please read this guidance from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

Refugee Week 2024: 'Our Home', resilience and the Hostile Environment

In June, it’s Refugee Week in the UK - and this year’s theme is ‘Our Home’. Refugee Week is organised annually and is the world's largest arts & culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. In this blog compiled by Routes’ Head of Programmes Wieke Vink, we share reflections from across the internet on what ‘Our home’ might mean in different contexts - and invite you to learn more about the implications of the UK’s Hostile Environment and the resilience of refugees.

Photo: Banner from the Routes Banner Making Workshop (June 2024). The text on the banner reads ‘Home is where I live in peace and safe’. You can read more about the Banner Making Workshop here.

Imagining home

If you feel comfortable, close your eyes for a second and think of ‘home’. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? What do you smell? Who is with you in your home - and who is perhaps kept out? Home can mean many things for different people - and often, people don’t just have one place they consider ‘home’.

It should be acknowledged that if you feel comfortable to close your eyes and think of home, likely you are in a position of privilege of some sorts. In the world, there are only a lucky few who can claim an uncomplicated relationships with home - a place of comfort, and nostalgia perhaps. A place of choice.
Many of us do not have the choice to be home, to reach home, or to be safe at home.

Leaving home

One of the most well-known contemporary poems on leaving home is ‘Home’ by Warsan Shire. The famous first lines read: ‘No one leaves home / unless home is like the mouth of a shark / you only run for the border / when you see the whole city running as well’. The poem takes us through messy journeys, past airport toilets, to refugee camps and prisons and people shouting insults and ‘Go home.’ The final stanza speaks in the sweaty voice of home itself: ‘Run away from me now / I don’t know what I’ve become / But I know that anywhere / Is safer than here.’

(You can read the full poem here on the website of Amnesty International Ireland. If you can, please consider supporting the work by the artist Warsan Shire by buying one of her poetry collections).

House versus home

As Tasneem Dahous - participant of the Araqa Collective - writes on Instagram: ‘In English, ‘house’ refers to the physical structure where I live, made of concrete, tents, or wood. ‘Home, on the other hand, includes intangible elements like memories, warmth, and emotional connections with loved ones. (…) I no longer create the same kind of memories, amongst displacement and uncertainty. This is the price of conflict between major powers and political ambitions that have stolen each of us the seed of hope and the ray of light that was burning.’ Araqa Collective invites their participants, who have experience of seeking safety, to reflect on the meaning of home in arts workshops they organise in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, in a video on Instagram, Morgan Cooper reflects on what it means to leave home if you don’t know if you will be able to return. Morgan is an American woman living with her Palestinian husband and their two children in Ramallah on the Palestinian Westbank. They are preparing for a trip to London for Eid celebrations. Her family is able to travel, as she describes, but living on the Westbank means that for any trip they will have to pack up their house as if it were the last time they would see it, as it might be. The rules, imposed by Israel, for Palestinians on the Westbank are strict and leave people with a huge amount of uncertainty.

Whilst responding to her child in the background, she talks to us from her kitchen, reflecting on the significance of the olive oil on her kitchen sink. Morgan addresses both the rules her family and neighbours are subject to, and her strong awareness that - as a Palestinian family - it is a strange experience to even be able to consider the possibility of potentially returning home relatively safe. Her Instagram is well-worth a visit, as she speaks up for a free Palestine and stands in solidarity with Gazans and Palestinians elsewhere.

(You can read Routes' statement and poem calling for a ceasefire from October 2023 here.).

Home in the Hostile Environment

What does ‘home’ mean in light of the UK’s Hostile Environment? When people from refugee backgrounds arrive in the UK and apply for asylum here, it is incredibly difficult for many to re-build a sense of home. This is often due to the ways the asylum system is designed. For example, thousands of asylum-seeking children are being housed in crowded hostels and hotels for lengthy periods of times - without access to sufficient healthy food, places to play and other things that might help you feel at home. The UK has also been using barges and barracks that are unfit for purpose, and have been described as ‘prison-like’ - causing suffering, further trauma and mental health risks for those forced to live there. And what does ‘Our Home’ mean when there is a constant threat and real risk of detention, and even the physical surroundings you find yourself in are not safe and not certain? In this blog, a former client from the organisation Freedom from Torture describes how it impacted her to have to live with the constant fear of the Government’s Rwanda Plans. Her piece was written before the shock detention operations that we saw in April 2024, ahead of the UK’s local elections - and that have further impacted those at risk of detention and removal to Rwanda.

Whilst detention has been a strong component of the recent Rwanda Plans (You can read Routes’ statement on the passing of the Rwanda Bill here), it is important to acknowledge that the use of detention as part of the UK asylum system is nothing new. The UK has been using detention as part of the immigration and asylum-system for a long time, creating significant harm and risk of life to those subjected to this ‘policy’ measure. The UK is also the only country in Europe that works with ‘indefinite detention’, meaning people can be put in detention centres indefinitely, with no release dates given and no judicial review processes.

Reimagining ‘Our Home’

In all the media frenzy and the urgency of support on a case-by-case basis, it is important to remember that seeking asylum is a human right. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 - one of the first international human rights documents from after the Second World War - it is stated in Article 14: ‘Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.’ Whilst we currently see a trend towards a hardening of refugee policy in different parts of Europe, it doesn’t have to be like this - and we all have a responsibility to speak up for human rights if we are safe and able to do so.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants has recently published a manifesto outlining five core components for migrant justice: rights, safety, dignity, justice and community. In conversation with other sector organisations, privacy was added as another important component outlining six steps to migrant justice. These are being shared far and wide, for people to be able to reimagine what a fair immigration system and society might look like - and take them into consideration when they vote.

Because yes, it’s election time! If you are eligible to vote, you have until Tuesday 18th June to register. People with Leave to Remain (many refugees), people who are asylum-seekers and some other migrants are not able to vote themselves. As such, if you call the UK your home and are able to vote, you have an important say in who gets to make decisions on the UK’s laws and policies. You can also have a look at this resource by City of Sanctuary on what to say when a political canvasser knocks on your door.

Recommendations from Routes for Refugee Week 2024

• Reflect on what the theme ‘Our Home’ means to you, and what you might want to do in the coming weeks to make that vision for a shared home more of a reality in your neighbourhood, your workplace, and in the UK as a whole.

• Follow the organisation Araqa Collective on Instagram, as they share more reflections on the theme ‘Our Home’ during Refugee Week. Araqa Collective is an organisation providing arts workshops to people who are displaced and currently based in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.

• Head to Hoxton Street (London) on Wednesday 19th June, for an evening of songs and poetry. The night ‘Ceasefire Songs & Poetry for Peace’ is hosted to raise funds for Gaza and Sudan. Anyone is welcome to share a song, a poem, or to just join in and listen to the evening’s contributions.

• More music! Head to the Migration Museum (London) on Friday 21st June for a free performance during lunchtime by the Sounds Like Home Choir.

• Have a look at the calendar for Refugee Week here. There are many more activities being organised, online and across the country.

• Sign up to the Routes Newsletter here, to stay up-to-date with the work that we do and developments in the sector. We share monthly suggestions for learning and action, that are relevant for anyone wanting to take steps - big and small - to speak up for refugee rights.

• Apply to the Routes Mentoring Programme. Applications for mentors and mentees are open now for our autumn 2024 cohort (deadline 7th July)! The Routes Mentoring Programme is designed as an immersive learning experience, in which mentors and mentees learn from each other. Mentors join Routes to learn about inclusive leadership, communication skills and the UK asylum system, as they support a mentee from a refugee background to work on their personal and professional goals.

With the theme of Refugee Week 2024 being ‘Our Home’, it is we who create ‘Our Home’ together, even though not all of us have equal opportunities to do so. We invite everyone in our network to use this Refugee Week 2024 to learn, share and stand in solidarity with everyone with experience of displacement.

Community Spotlight: Food for connection and a way to share love

In June, it’s Refugee Week in the UK - and the theme for 2024 is ‘Our Home’. In this blog, Routes alumni mentee Karla reflects on the importance of food for her identity, connecting through food and the joy of making baladeas.

Karla is a member of the Routes Community and was a mentee on the 11th Routes Mentoring Programme, which ran from October 2023 to February 2024. Together with her mentor Megan, Karla worked on goals related to employability and professional development. As an alumna of the Routes Mentoring Programme, Karla joined Routes for our Bursary Application Day, and secured a bursary from the City & Guilds Foundation for the Oxford Women Leadership Development Programme. You can read more about this Bursary Programme here. Karla now works at Brent Council as a Community Support Officer, supporting asylum-seekers and refugees.

In Karla’s words: ‘Honduran food is important to me, because it is part of my identity. Food to me is not only about feeding ourselves to stay alive, but it's also about memories and connections with our past and our routes to where we are now.’ Read more about the story of the delicious baladeas below!

Good morning dear reader, on this occasion I want to share a little about where I come from: a small country located in Central America called Honduras. Honduras is next to El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We are also very close to Mexico so many of the foods in our country are influenced in a certain way by these countries, especially Mexico whose culinary tradition dates back 10,000 years.

Most of the people I have spoken with don't know where Honduras is located and the ones who do know, only know bad stories about my country. This blog is about showing them there's more than that - and also to show everyone how happy it makes us feel, almost like anyone in their own country, to take pride in our food. I think in my humble opinion the food in my country has different flavors and it tastes good, and I would like people to get to try it at least one time -or if they can't try it at least to know about it.

Writing about my food makes me feel as if people can get to know me through the food of my country.

The story of tortillas

I want to start with a story. The other day I was in the kitchen where I live, cooking tortillas. Tortillas are the basis of Honduran food, we accompany them with basically everything we eat. For example, at breakfast: tortillas with fried beans, butter, cheese, fried or scrambled eggs and avocado. At lunch: tortillas with a chicken soup with rice. Tortillas are basically corn flour. In Honduras, corn is cooked in water with lime and salt. It is then taken to grind. And the corn dough is what is used to make tortillas. There are many places where one can go to buy tortillas.

Women of all ages are dedicated to preparing, making, and then selling very warm tortillas. We Hondurans love them.

Photo: Karla during her time on the Routes Mentoring Programme (standing, third from the right), with fellow mentees and facilitator Teri-Ann Bobb-Baxter during the Public Speaking Workshop.

La baleada: a Honduran gift for the gastronomy of the world 

You can't talk about Honduran food without talking about La Baleada. Baleadas are a simple, yet delicious, street food from Honduras's north coast. They consist of a thick flour tortilla that is filled with re-fried red beans, a sprinkle of grated cheese, and cream. Honduran red beans are the color of kidney beans, yet smaller in size.

Why is the dish called baleadas (‘bullets’)? There is no official story, but there are two popular versions. The first is that the beans in the 70s were nicknamed bullets, because when you mix the beans with cheese and put them in your mouth, they usually come out towards each other. This can be thought of as ‘explosion bullets’. The second version is that according to urban legend, it all started when a woman sold flour tortillas. This was near the banana fields in La Lima and her tortillas were served with beans and cheese. It is said  that one day a shooting occurred in the area and a bullet hit the lady. The wound was not deep or very serious, since a few days later she returned to her daily work and continued preparing her delicious dish. Legend has it that since that time, day workers in the area began to say ‘Let's eat at "la baleada",’ turning the incident into the popular name that characterizes it.

This dish has become one of the most iconic in our country. And it fills us with pride when a foreigner visits our beautiful land and the first thing we ask is; “Have you tried the bullets yet?” Well, we offer this culinary gem almost immediately.

Photo: Karla (on the right) during a Mock Interview Session with interviewers from UBS.

Food as a way to share love

Food is really important to me. When I have the opportunity to eat out in some Honduran restaurant or when I cook some food from my country at home, it makes me feel like I haven't lost it all. it makes me feel myself, it makes me feel like even though I'm living in a different country I can still be me. My food makes me feel safe and more like myself.

I have friends from different countries and we sometimes cook a different meal from the different countries we are coming from. For instance, my friends from Bolivia, Brazil, Spain, Guatemala, Ukraine, Mexico and Romania. They all cook for me - or I cook for them. Sharing food is, in my point of view, a way to share love.

Got your taste buds excited after reading this blog - and are you interested in exploring flavours from chefs and dishes from across the world? At Routes, we highly recommend having a look at the cookery classes of Migrateful, who are working with refugees and migrants to provide delicious culinary experiences. Their cookery classes are a great idea for a gift or a team building event, and you might even come across a few chefs at Migrateful who are also community members of Routes!

Making applications more accessible - for refugee women and for all

Access to training and learning opportunities is one of the barriers for women with experience of seeking safety to start or progress their professional lives in the UK. This includes financial barriers, as well as other barriers related to accessing education. Since 2022, Routes has developed a new partnership with the City & Guilds Foundation, who have a bursary available for vocational education and training courses for those in financial need. We’ve worked closely together with the City & Guilds Foundation, and our community members and partner organisations, to support women in applying to the City & Guilds bursary.

In this blog, you can read what we’ve learned together about supporting our community members to apply for the City & Guilds Foundation bursary - and making their bursary application process more accessible for all. Written by Lauren Roberts (Advocacy Lead for the City and Guilds Foundation) and Wieke Vink (Head of Programmes, Routes). First published on the City & Guilds website in January 2024.

Accessing education opportunities as a refugee woman

We know that for some people the cost of training can be a huge barrier to accessing the skills needed for jobs and career progression. Recent research indicates that without the support of funding, those hardest to reach will find it harder to progress in a labour market which favours those already in higher-paying work.

Over 20 years ago at City & Guilds we created our bursary programme to help people in genuine financial need to access training programmes and develop skills for meaningful employment. Our bursaries are designed to change people’s lives through skills. And it works, in fact employment nearly doubles for those individuals who receive funding from us.

Since the summer of 2022, City and Guilds have paired up with Routes, to support women from refugee backgrounds in accessing training opportunities. Routes is a London-based social enterprise, who work to support women to grow together, and refugee women to thrive in the UK. Routes’ runs their flagship Mentoring Programme twice a year, in which women from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds work on their goals in the field of education, employment and confidence-building. Participants and alumni of the Programme have been able to apply for City & Guilds funding, to access further education opportunities.

Women from refugee backgrounds come to education opportunities in the UK from different starting points. Some want to build on their previous professional experience but need certain courses or certifications to be able to continue working in the same career in the UK. Others want to retrain in the UK into a different career and need a college course or training opportunity to be able to do so. Lastly, there is a group of women who have not been to further education prior and want to start building their careers in the UK by studying in a field of interest. For all these different women, City & Guilds offer opportunities to apply for a bursary that allows them to do a college course or relevant training.

Participants of the Routes Bursary Application Day

In February 2024, Routes piloted our first Bursary Application Day. Interested applicants joined us at the UBS offices in Central London, where they were paired up with UBS volunteers for support in preparing for their bursary applications. This included support in researching their options in the career fields of their choice, and mock interviews.

After the Bursary Day, participants were able to apply for the City & Guilds Bursary independently, and with a clear idea of the different steps in the application process.

On the photo: three participants of the Bursary Day and Routes’ Head of Programmes Wieke Vink (on the right).

Making applications accessible

Routes has been supporting their community members, to apply for the City & Guilds bursary. Like other applicants, Routes’ community members have to fill out a written application form, and then attend an interview with a panel from City & Guilds to explain their interest in their chosen field as well as their need for support. Whilst piloting this partnership, we had several successes and are still witnessing the impact of the bursaries that were awarded.

We also had several learnings and improvements we made along the process, our key takeaways being;

• Sending interview questions beforehand as we just stated all applicants must attend a virtual interview during the application process. The purpose of this is to confirm each individuals’ circumstances and plans to use the qualification. We know that the word interview can sometimes be daunting, so in order to ‘catch people in’ instead of out, we now send interview questions beforehand to applicants. Allowing them to come prepared and confidently demonstrate their need for the bursary.

• Giving applicants the option to invite someone else to their interview; we want to make the whole application as kind as possible, especially those who may have additional barriers such as language. Another Routes suggestion we have embraced is letting applicants know they can forward the interview invite on to a mentor, trusted friend or member of the Routes team.

• Flexibility in interview style and times; typically, all interviews take place over teams during office hours of 9-5. However, we are increasingly finding that not all applicants have access to a stable internet connection and especially with our Routes applicants, childcare can often be an issue. We now offer out of hours interview slots after 5pm and give applicants the option of a phone interview rather than virtual.

Accessibility for all 

In the words of Leyla McLennan, Founding Director of Routes:

‘Working with the City & Guilds Foundation with the aim of making their bursary programme accessible for the refugee and asylum-seeking women we work with has been amazing. The partnership enables us to offer bursaries for women we’ve supported on our mentoring programme, and since access to training and education can otherwise be difficult, it’s been so valuable to have this opportunity. It’s great to hear from City and Guilds that some of the changes have become general ways of working for the bursary team now, such as. suggesting that candidates can bring someone with them to the interview. It really shows how inclusive design can benefit everyone!’

Access to training and learning opportunities is one of the barriers for women with experience of seeking safety to start or progress their professional lives in the UK.

Advocacy Lead for the City & Guilds Foundation, Lauren Roberts said:

‘Working with Routes has not only allowed us to award funding to one of our key target groups but to also make the bursary process kinder and more inclusive for all. We have seen an improvement in confidence, quality of applications and overall engagement with the bursary process. We’re incredibly grateful for the support and guidance Routes have given us and are continuing to implement suggestions and recommendations. We are currently looking at ensuring all staff that interview bursary applications have received awareness training on supporting those from refugee backgrounds.’

Routes and City & Guilds look forward to building on this partnership and making their bursary application process more accessible for refugee women – and for all.

Update: we are very pleased to share some good news! After our very first Bursary Day, various Routes community members have successfully gone through the City & Guilds Foundation bursary application process. They have been awarded bursaries, and will start courses including Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People's Service, a course in Women’s Leadership Development and a preparation course for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test, which is a requirement for requalification for medical professions and dentistry in the UK. Congratulations!

Using your influence: actions you can take to resist the Rwanda flights

In follow-up to our statement last week, we wanted to offer some suggestions for actions you can take to resist the proposed Rwanda flights, and speak up for refugee rights and a safe and humane UK asylum system. This comes on the back of a news report by the Guardian that the Home Office will start implementing parts of the new legislation as of Monday 29th April - starting to detain people, weeks earlier than expected.

What’s the Rwanda plan?

Last week, the so-called ‘Safety of Rwanda Bill’ passed Parliament, and will now become law. In it, the government has outlined its powers to outsource its responsibilities under the UN Refugee Convention to Rwanda. Asylum-seekers who arrive in the UK, can be detained and put on flights to Rwanda. If granted refugee status they will not be allowed to return to the UK, but must settle in Rwanda.

The Bill says that Rwanda should be treated as a ‘safe country’, which goes against last year’s ruling of the UK’s Supreme Court. Organisations in the sector have raised the alarm on this unprecedented disregard of international standards to safeguard people’s human rights, including this action by Freedom from Torture, Amnesty and Liberty UK.

Please find below an overview of actions you can take, to show your opposition against the Rwanda Bill, and speak up for refugee rights - with family and friends, in your community, and on your workplace.

Sign and share

• This petition by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, to show your opposition against the Rwanda legislation, and solidarity with people at risk of being detained and put on flights.

• This petition by Freedom from Torture to email the airline AirTanker directly, to demand they refrain from operating these planned flights to Rwanda.

• This petition on Change.org to stop the Rwanda flights. It was started by someone from Afghanistan, who served alongside the British soldiers there and now faces risk of deportation.

Start or join a local support group

• From news coming out now, it seems like people might be at risk for being put up for detention either at their accommodation, or when they go to ‘sign in’ as part of their required reporting. This blog by Right to Remain explains how you can set up a signing support group, and what to consider, so you have an action plan and emergency contacts in place.

• Care4Calais has created a leaflet, with information in different languages for anyone who might be at risk of detention. There is a number people can message on WhatsApp if they are in a hotel (+447519773268) and a number to memorise, for people to call who are in detention (08000096268). Please share this information with anyone who has received a letter from the Home Office, which mentions ‘Rwanda’ or ‘Notice of Intent’.

Start conversations

• City of Sanctuary has compiled this list of facts and FAQs, so you can have well-informed conversation about the UK asylum system. It’s really useful to have a read through, to learn about common misconceptions.

• City of Sanctuary has also created this blog, with top tips for starting conversations with your family, friends, community and at your work place.

• Follow these simple steps by City of Sanctuary to raise your concerns when a political canvasser knocks on your door - and use your voting power in local and national elections, if you have the right to vote. Conversations around elections can be a really powerful of starting conversations, and making clear that this Rwanda Bill does not have popular support.

• Read Refugee Action's What Everyone Needs to Know about the Rwanda Bill.

• Please remember that this current legislation sits in a wider spectrum of law and policies that are actively harming people seeking safety. For example, the prison-like conditions on the barge Bibby Stockholm in Dorset, where one resident has already died.

Strategy and creativity

• It is important to remember that there are positive alternatives to the way the UK asylum system currently works, and that there are ways to make the asylum system kind, welcoming and fair. Here's a vision by City of Sanctuary of what a positive alternative to the current system could look like - in line with human rights, and much less costly too. 

• If you have a platform on social media, no matter how small, you can use it to share information by organisations from the sector, and get your wider networks engaged. You can follow @routeswomen on Instagram for updates. Other organisations to follow include Refugee Action, Freedom from Torture, City of Sanctuary, Right to Remain, and more. (Do make sure to check your settings, so that it also allows ‘political’ content. Instagram has recently made updates to their policies, which might mean that otherwise this content remains hidden).

• Use your creative skills to raise awareness on this issue! Sew a banner, write an op-ed, use your workplace Lunch & Learn to educate yourself and your colleagues on what is happening. We run engaging and informative Lunch and Learns about the asylum system.

Donate 

• Many organisations in the sector are providing practical, psycho-social and legal support to people affected by displacement. They need your support now more than ever. If you are able to support financially, many organisations have the option of donation listed on their website.

• You can donate to the Care4Calais caseworker appeal here (on Instagram), to make sure there is enough casework support to anyone receiving notices, including linking them up with lawyers.

• You can donate to the Routes Access Fund to support our work here.

Protest and other forms of direct action

• If you want to join protests or direct actions efforts, These Walls Must Fall is organising solidarity actions in Liverpool and Manchester.

• We know joining a protest is not possible for everyone, and is particularly difficult for people with insecure immigration status. Please read these guidelines by the Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants for information.

We stand in solidarity with everyone affected by these anti-refugee laws. Seeking asylum is a human right, and no-one should be faced with the threat of detention and removal after seeking safety.

Routes remains committed to carrying out our Programmes as we do, and speaking out for a fair and welcoming asylum system. Please join us in this effort. If you are in a position of safety, this is your opportunity to shape the policy of the UK and prevent further harm to those who are not.

Statement by Routes on the passing of further Anti-Refugee Legislation

Last night, the Rwanda Bill was passed in the House of Lords. This means that the Bill now awaits royal ascent, after which it will become law. Please find below a statement from Routes, on this sad and momentous day.

Seeking asylum is a human right and we are deeply saddened and angry by the passing of the Rwanda Bill last night.

How did we get here?

Our current government has shown unprecedented commitment to passing this legislation after the UK Supreme Court found the previous Bill with the same intent to be unlawful. Though the House of Lords suggested many amendments, very few were actually incorporated into the Bill that has now passed.

The Bill includes clauses that ignore international law and the UK’s own Human Rights Act. It is contradictory to previous rulings of UK domestic courts, as well as the European Court for Human Rights. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have already sounded the alarm on the implications of this piece of legislation, as has the Council of Europe’s human rights Watchdog.

Most importantly, this Bill is about a very simple question: how does the UK want to treat people seeking safety? As such, it concerns us all.

What does this mean?

This Bill states that Rwanda should now ‘conclusively’ be treated as save, overruling the findings of the Supreme Court last year.

This is not just a political debate - this has very real implications for people’s lives, and the things they might come to fear. People who are seeking safety should not be put through further traumatising experiences, should not be put in detention and should not be at risk of being forcibly removed.

There is also a ‘voluntary and assisted departure scheme’, which offers people significant financial support, if they choose to go to Rwanda ‘voluntary’. These offers are made to people on the spot, without ensuring they have legal support or interpretation where needed. Whilst the current UK asylum-system is justifiably called ‘the Hostile Environment’, fear and ‘voluntary departure’ should not be people’s only options.

Our response

We stand with everyone organising against the implications of these Anti-Refugee Laws, and who continue to do so. We’ve signed an open letter to Rishi Sunak along with 250 other organisations expressing our outrage at the “shameful and performatively cruel law that will risk people's lives”.

We hold in our thoughts everyone in the sector who feel the impact of this news, as it reverberates across our communities. In particular, we are thinking of the individuals who might be directly affected in the coming weeks, by receiving notices of intended removal and - by implication of this Bill - now having limited means of challenging unjust decisions. There is lots of work to be done, and these decisions will be challenged.

What you can do?

This moment is an invitation to us all, to speak up about refugee rights. Please make sure this is a conversation to be had, in your family, community and at your work place in the days and weeks to come. This blog by City of Sanctuary is a great place to start.

We expect that there will be lots of opportunities to support the fight against this legislation. We will share campaigns and further opportunities here.

Routes remains committed to delivering our Programmes, and speaking out for a fair, compassionate and welcoming asylum-system. Please read our 2023/2024 Impact Report here, to learn more about the work that we do.

Mentor Joana and mentee Nanou: building on public speaking and leadership skills through mentoring

Mentor Joana and mentee Nanou joined Routes for our 11th Mentoring Programme, starting in autumn 2023. Joana Murta Rosa is a Programmes and Operations Manager at the UK’s innovation agency Nesta. She joined the Routes Mentoring Programme, hoping to learn more about guiding another person towards their goals, and building her leadership skills. She was paired with mentee Nanou, who wanted to work on her public speaking skills and her next steps in the UK.

Mentor Joana and mentee Nanou write together about their experience on the Routes Mentoring Programme, and what they learned along the way.

In October 2023, we Mentee and Mentor embarked on this mentoring journey of self-development, learning, of empowerment, of skills and knowledge transfer, building confidence and resilience. At the same time, we have also stepped into a beautiful journey together of friendship, respect, and human connection. 

Nanou came in with the objective of improving public speaking skills – not her confidence because she’s actually powerful and natural when speaking in public, but practical advise on how to take it even to the next level; Joana joined the programme with the objective of feeling more comfortable in the shoes of a coach/mentor and to learn more about the asylum seekers context and reality. 

The programme is an opportunity to learn about different topics, to build knowledge on a very important topic which is the system and conditions in which asylum seekers face and have to live in. It is also a platform helping women to  leading difficult conversations, sharing expertise, and creating new paths for others to follow.

We learned that no one can get by in life on their own. I feel that as women, we  can enrich our own life by helping others, and Routes mentoring programme  helps us doing that.

When we started our journey, we were not sure how it was going to be beneficial for both of us. So we find it really empowering at the end of each session because when two women are bringing their ideas and thoughts together without an agenda, it can be very powerful.

Photo: Nanou (top left) and other mentees at the Routes Public Speaking workshop. Public speaking was also the main focus of Nanou and Joana as they worked together as a mentoring pair.

We both agreed that objectives were met! We even exceeded them, we empowered and encouraged each other along the journey, even more because we are both women and the bond and experiences you go through are more similar than what one initially thinks - the context for building trust was there from the onset. 

We’ve listened to each other whilst creating the space for sometimes going completely off topic – including doing some online joint mediation (with the wrong music which allowed for a good laugh).

We believe that the best investment that anyone can make in themselves is learning! Particularly for women, becoming independent opens so many opportunities to explore full potential and take better control of one’s life. Taking small steps towards learning and reaching our goals can go a long way. 

Our 4-month journey together was a step close for each of us to be closer to our long-term objectives and many steps towards creating a new friendship and support network. This Programme is more than a mentoring programme, it is a human journey celebrating women!

When human beings have the determination to work hard, there’s nothing they can’t achieve, regardless of their gender - they just need to find their own path. Sometimes we need a little push to step out of our comfort zone and explore what we want to do, and to understand how to work towards a goal. Alongside it, one also neds to be patient, gentle with oneself and learn from own mistakes. No matter how challenging of a situation one is going through, seek support and try to keep going. Everyone who is successful today has been through hardship. Don’t give up. Just keep going. 

To new mentors and mentees we say: ‘We are rooting for you and hope that new cohorts of mentors and mentees can find this journey as fun, beautiful and enriching as we did!’

'As the rain refreshes our learning and growth': Celebration Event for our 11th Mentoring Cohort

On Wednesday 21st January 2024 - International Day of the Mother Language - we organised the Celebration Event for our 11th Mentoring Cohort. It was a chance for mentors and mentees to meet in-person, reflect on their time on the Mentoring Programme, make new memories… and do some speed networking too!

Some images from the Celebration Event of our 11th Mentoring cohort, at the Gallery Cafe in London.

The Celebration Events mark the end of 4 months of mentoring, and they are a highlight on each Mentoring Programme! This Programme, we have 18 pairs graduating from our Mentoring Programme - and we couldn’t be prouder of their time together.

For some pairs on our 11th Mentoring Programme, this was the first time they were able to meet in-person, whilst others had a chance to meet other participants of the Programme. The Routes team organised different activities for the pairs to share their learning, and participants spoke warmly about the relationships built, the confidence grown and the work on their personal and professional goals.

As we gathered on the International Day of the Mother Language, we also took the time to celebrate the richness in linguistic diversity that we all brought to the room. This then became part of a poem (text and video below) to commemorate our wonderful 11th Mentoring cohort!

Above: word web with different words related to celebration in the languages present in our Routes community.
Below: video of the poem ‘As the rain’ by Routes’ Head of Programmes Wieke Vink.

Poem for our 11th Mentoring cohort:
‘As the rain refreshes our learning and growth’

Today is the International Day of the Mother Language
And we all know Mother Earth is asking us for new words

Of care
and caregiving
healing and
mentoring

Women supporting women
to make improvements in their lives
to keep injustices at bay
to put more beauty on display
with the kids close by having fun in play

As we gather here today
in this Gallery Cafe
From different corners of the world and the UK
With the shared aim of supporting each other on our personal goals

With big dreams
for different routes
of building new lives here in the UK

Of being a manager one day
Of learning about apprenticeships
Of passing the English language test
To be reassessed
To be - once again -
A dentist

In our midst
We have researchers and a prospective counsellor
A digital marketeer and social care workers
And an athlete
Representing team play on the world stage

We, who know at least fourteen words for celebration
Dit feestje - in Dutch - is yours to shape
As you weaved together your words
In online and offline conversations

So we stand here today
In solidarity against the suffering in this world
As a witness to the power of connection

A testimony of an evening
With the words we speak
Full of vision and recollection

As the rain refreshes our learning and growth

A big congratulations to the mentors and mentees of the 11th Routes Mentoring cohort!