Black Students Project

£1M FUNDING FOR 40 NEW COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROJECTS

On Wednesday 23 May 2007, health minister Rosie Winterton announced funding for 40 new community engagement projects, which includes ours.
This announcement forms part of the Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health programme in the United Kingdom.

Black Students Project
responsible to
Tees Valley Voices For Justice (TVVFJ)
Ground Floor - Erimus House,
4 Queens Square,
Middlesbrough
TS2 1AA

t: 01642 354143
f:01642 354140
info@blackstudentsproject.co.uk

ASYLUM MONOLOGUES 25TH JAN AND 29TH APRIL 2007
Asylum Monologues This is an account of the asylum system, told first hand by the people who have experienced it. With personal testimony at its core combined with public opinion, statements and statistical fact, this production disseminates what it really means to be a refugee. This project is a collaboration between Tees Valley Voices For Justice, Justice First, Ice and Fire theatre group and Actors For Refugees, a new network that aims to use the collective might of UK performers to influence community attitudes toward refugees and people seeking asylum and to encourage a humanitarian response to their situation, using Asylum Monologues as their main advocacy tool. The production was launched on June 25 th 2006, the culminating day of Refugee Week, at Amnesty International, London. Teessiders were invited to the free evening at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Thursday 26 th January to see actors tell the stories of people who have fled from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Jamaica, Iraq and Iran and many other countries where human rights are generally poor. William Meli, from Middlesbrough, helped organise the event, with the full support of Middlesbrough Council Community Chest, small grant.
	View flyer here Some feedbacks from the event • Wonderfully devised, well chosen pieces, incredibly revealing. • A very powerful experience. Every school in Britain should have a performance. • Powerful. Never realised people could be treated so dreadfully.	• I came here tonight without knowing the difference between an asylum seeker and a refugee. I am choked for words. This was a powerful, hard-hitting script of horrific events. I fully intend to support this cause • Very informative and very shocking. Got me motivated! • Eye-opening. brought it all to life. Very ‘raw'! • Information for the heart, mind and soul. So well researched and delivered with evident belief and empathy. • Unbelievably poignant and informative • Shock. Horror. I thought I knew a lot already, but the stories are dreadful. • Very interesting and meaningful way of getting the message across. I really had no idea of what these people are going through. • A powerful insight into the social injustice and inhumanity of bureaucratic systems and processes.