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Refugee Week comes to the Galleries - Bristol

Monday 9th June 2008

WANT to find out what the link between the Mini Cooper and refugees is? Or discover what it is really like to be an asylum seeker or refugee? Want to know what you can do to help refugees in Bristol?

Shoppers to the Galleries on Wednesday (June 18) can have all their questions about refugees answered, be entertained by live African music and have a go on a remote controlled mini!

Visitors to the centre can complete a refugee quiz or write a welcome postcard to a refugee and receive a free canvas shopping bag. There will also be a mini remote-control competition and shoppers will be invited to compete to do the fastest lap! Free balloons will be available for children.

The event will be run by Refugee Action, a national, independent charity that helps refugees to build new lives in the UK.

Staff and volunteers from the charity’s Refugee Awareness Project will be on hand to offer free awareness-raising sessions with visitors’ workplaces or groups. You can also talk to volunteer refugee mentors from the TimeTogether project.

Refugee Week (June 16th to 24th) is an annual event that celebrates refugees’ contributions to the UK through educational, artistic, social and cultural events. Bristol has a rich history of welcoming refugees and is holding many free public events this year.

For more information about other events in the city please go to www.bristolrefugeeweek.co.uk.

ENDS
For more information please contact Julia Ravenscroft, press officer at Refugee Action, on 0161 233 1956 or 07771 748 159.

Notes:
Refugee Action is an independent, national charity working to enable refugees to build new lives in the UK. We provide practical advice and assistance for newly arrived asylum seekers and long-term commitment to their settlement through community development work, and advised more than 40,000 asylum seekers and refugees last year. As one of the country’s leading agencies in the field, Refugee Action has 25 years’ experience in pioneering innovative work in partnership with refugees.