Leicester City's Afghan Community

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Introduction and Background:

Millions of Afghans left their homes and fled to different countries in the world after the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the long civil war that followed. The country has been a state of war and political unrest ever since. Majority of Afghan immigration to UK started when the government of Afghanistan fell into Talibans’ hands.

Afghans arrived to UK with tons of problems in their lives. They were made to leave their country, families, relatives, homes, businesses, lands and jobs. Lots of them lost their family members they have been beaten, tortured, looted and threaten buy invaders, neighbors as well as their own brother (Afghans). On top of all those problems Afghans living in the UK also have some social problems such as English language difficulties, cultural understanding, residency and integration in the United Kingdom. Owing to the problems mentioned above and many more a community group has been established in Leicester to help Afghans and to represent the Afghan Community named Leicester city’s Afghan Community (LCAC) in the first quarter of 2009.

The hard work of community social works gradually managed to gain the trust of Afghans betrayed by lots of people and were not easily ready to trust any one.

OBJECTIVES

To represent the interests of the Afghan community in Leicester.
To provide a central forum and a rallying point for all Afghans living in Leicester to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest.
To promote and encourage socio-cultural activities as an educational resource for Afghans and to improve their knowledge of our cultural background and all other cultures.
To promote social cohesion and unity among the residents.
To celebrate our traditional and religious events.
To help Afghans’ integrating with other local communities in Leicester.
To promote education amongst the Afghan community, particularly through provision of language (English, Pashto, Dari), mathematics and religious classes.
To introduce and promote Afghan culture by cooperation and collaboration with other organisations in Leicester as well as through exhibitions and demonstrations.
To arrange sports activities/classes for youths and older people.
To work positively with local organisations and any other groups to identify and solve problems thereby improving the quality of life for the residents.
To promote equal choice and opportunities which will encourage good neighborliness and community spirit in the area.
To work in close contact with any other organisations/authority for the welfare of our people.

Current Status and Achievements of LCAC:

In result of the hard work of the social workers LCAC managed to gain trust of war-affected Afghans living in Leicester and in nearby cities and towns. The community has made remarkable achievements some of them are as below:

Promoted four major cultural events drawing to gather majority of Afghans from Leicester as well as Afghans from other cities of UK.
Arranged and provided educational classes for Afghans.
Provided an information and advice centre for Afghans living in or newly arrived in Leicester through daily drop in sessions in the Community offices.
Provided personalised support to Afghan residents of Leicester and those newly arrived with language difficulties, problems over accommodation, accessing services by home visits, accompanying people to service locations etc.
Working with the Police locally to promote social cohesion between Afghan young people and others through participation in community meetings, liaison with the police and planning sports and recreational activities to offer diversionary activities for young members of the Afghan community.
Sports classes have been arranged for Afghans, especially targeting Afghan teenagers living without their families in Leicester and nearby cities.
Broadcasting on weekly basis from a community radio.

Future Planning:

The future planning of LCAC are divided in two major parts:

Immediate Actions
Long-term Actions

Immediate Actions:

Immediate actions planed by LCAC are as follow:

To bring Improvement in the services currently provided by seeking advice from experienced organisations in relevant field and attracting more experienced and educated Afghans.
To create Afghan football, cricket, volleyball and marshal arts teams in order to motivate current players and to encourage and attract rest of the Afghan community toward sports and a healthy life and prevent them from heading toward dreadful practices.
To increase the number of educational classes for upcoming summer holidays and to improve its quality by seeking help in resources and funding from governmental and other add organisations.
To find better solutions of improving social behavior of Afghans and promote social cohesion between Afghans and other communities.
To increase the weekly broadcast and improve its quality to a better standard.
To develop a website and blog for the community to keep them posted on the new developments and to enable them to share their ideas, views and suggestions.

Long-term Actions:

LCAC also have plans which will be implemented in long-term:

To become financially independent.
To organise regular events and exhibitions for introduction and promotion of Afghan culture among other communities.
To create youth/elder people and women center.
To take the sports teams to a higher level so that they could take part in county level tournaments.
To establish our own radio station as well as to publish and circulate weekly periodical magazines.
To improve our accountability through listening to the community views and continually reporting to them on what LCAC is doing through radio, website, magazine and events.

LCAC at the moment is running on the funds received from its members as their monthly contribution and some fund raising activities (which can also not be well organised due to the lack of funds) which is not sufficient for it’s activates. LCAC needs initial funding enabling its management to plan ahead for fund raising rather then relying on last minute injections from the member’s contribution and social and fund raising activities.