How Portsmouth became a city of sanctuary for Kadiatu

Portsmouth City of Sanctuary is based at St Luke’s Church in Southsea and provides a place for around 3,000 asylum seekers and refugees a year to find advice, support, food and above all a warm welcome. The CIC has received funding from HIWCF for many aspects of its support work, in particular its Kitchen of Hope.

It is a typically busy Monday morning and the high vaulted ceiling of St Luke’s echoes with the buzz of conversation in a muddle of 20 languages, shouted greetings and frequent laughter as more than 60 refugees and asylum seekers gather for their weekly get-together.

They will enjoy a meal, chat to friends and seek guidance from Portsmouth City of Sanctuary (PCoS) volunteers or one of the many organisations who have set up in the hall – from Citizens Advice and the Breastfeeding Network to the city council and even the police.

Among the throng is 37-year-old Kadiatu Conteh, who is part of a small team preparing hot food in the kitchen. She is easy to spot as she is the only member of the team with a small baby cocooned within a shawl on her back in traditional fashion.

She has been a regular here since it opened in 2019 and in that time has grown from an uncertain visitor to a confident volunteer whose cheery disposition and culinary skills make her an indispensable part of the set-up.

She fled to the UK from Sierra Leonne because her tribe upheld cultural norms that would have required her either to endure or to participate in acts of violence. For her own safety she had to leave and ended up in London. Shortly after she was moved to Portsmouth and arrived with a baby, a few words of English and little else. She met Shamila Dhana, now chair of trustees at Portsmouth City of Sanctuary, at the city’s Red Cross centre.

“She didn’t have a pushchair or any baby items and, I would say, poor mental health,” says Shamila. “But luckily those are all things we provide to asylum seekers in the city via baby banks such as our Family Church Baby Basics project or at The Parenting Network Baby Bank and we were able to help her.”

Kadiatu takes up the story: “I wanted to come to England because of the situation in my country, it reached a certain point where they were looking for me and I had to leave my village and run away with my daughter. I knew that if I came to England, I’d be safe,” she says.

“When I came to Portsmouth I was a little bit stressed because I didn’t know anyone. But when I met Sharmila for the first time she took me in and said ‘we are your family now, so you don’t need to worry about anything’. It gave me that hope that I had found a family and I knew I could start again.”

She started coming to PCoS and began making friends. Being able to share her experiences and realise there were many others who had lived through ordeals that had been similarly traumatic strengthened her feeling of belonging in this new family she’d found.

“There’s a lot of progression through the process I have been through,” she says. “Meeting other people that encourage you a lot, makes you have the hope that you are safe. And when you need someone, you can go to people here for advice and help and it makes you feel safe too.”

Although she knew a little English she was determined to speak it better after encouragement from Shamila and other volunteers. “They teach English in Sierra Leone but our main language is Creole,” she says.

“When I came to Portsmouth I was staying at home with my baby so I started reading books and trying to understand more sentences and words. I wanted to keep myself busy and to know more English.”

She was so successful she began volunteering as a teaching assistant at PCoS’ English lessons for refugees and asylum seekers. Although the charity throws a protective arm around its guests, it is also quick to encourage independence.

“We are a lifeline for them but we also promote independence, speaking English and doing things for themselves,” says Shamila. “Initially we do what we can to get people on their feet, but we’ll be expecting them to become self-sufficient quite quickly. We know that once they receive refugee status, the Job Centre will be looking to get those people working. When you’re able to speak and make your own decisions, it’s quite empowering.”

Kadiatu enjoyed the English lessons but her love of cooking was an even stronger pull so she joined the kitchen team. “I love to cook and anytime I cook I feel happy,” she says.

“I cook a lot of African dishes and also English dishes, it makes me so happy to do it and feel like I am helping people think of home and be close to their culture,” she said.

Food is an important part of any country’s culture and being able to provide frightened, lonely and often emotionally traumatised people with a dish that invokes the memory of better times is key to helping them to begin establishing the first foundations of a new life.

PCoS trustee Malcolm Little says funding from HIWCF has been instrumental in it setting up its Kitchen of Hope, a catering operation based at St Simon’s Church in Southsea. Crucially it is located close to The Royal Beach Hotel, where around 160 asylum seekers live on £8 a week and bland airplane-style meals.

“HIWCF understands that frontline organisations are not the national charities and I think all the funding we’ve applied for is based on the feedback of our service users,” says Malcolm.

“Everyone in The Royal Beach was saying ‘we can’t eat that food’. Uninformed people might think ‘well, they’re living in a hotel, what’s the problem?’. But you try living in a hotel on aeroplane-level food when you’re from a different culture for 18 months. It will keep you alive, but it isn’t great. They are sharing rooms, they’re stuck in the same facilities together eating very, very standard fare day in, day out with no other money or choice.”

Using a grant from the Foundation’s Including Communities Fund, asylum seekers plan and cook authentic, culturally appropriate meals in the St Simon’s kitchens. It gives the volunteers a purpose as well as a taste of home and, invaluably, the grant also allows the volunteers to receive food and hygiene safety training and certificates to help them find work once they receive the right to remain.

The volunteers have also cooked for the homeless day service, rough sleepers hub, the city’s Queen Alexandra Hospital and staff and volunteers working at Victoria Park.

“HIWCF has been really, really important to us and a regular provider for those non-core activities that make life bearable, like our Kitchen of Hope and our other food and art projects,” says Malcolm.

“What we do is to welcome people and make it dignified and compassionate. Without that, it would just be a bit prescriptive and cold.”

Kadiatu now has a second daughter, Eliane, and her older daughter is doing well at secondary school. “Being in Portsmouth means a lot to me because it’s a safe place for me and my kids,” she says. “I know that nothing will happen to me when I’m here.

“There are lovely people here, amazing people that you can talk to at any time if you have a problem or you are worried about something. You meet them and they will give you advice and help you.

“I always think that as long as you open up with other people and make friends, it is better. But coming to this place has made it easier.”