Young refugees and asylum seekers in Leeds will have the chance to create their own animated films through a new project at Leeds City Museum.

Local refugee organisation, Afrolatino, recently received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to co-ordinate the project for 50 young people in the city to investigate the African and Asian items in the city’s museum collections and use them as inspiration to create animated films with their own personal soundtracks.

Participants will receive practical training on digital animation, film-making, and music production to produce a series of short films. These will be screened at Leeds Museum and at various community centres in the city at the end of the project in August 2011.

Afrolatino is a refugee community organisation (RCO) based in Leeds, set up in 2006 to provide training programmes for disadvantaged local young people in music and animation. They are supported by the Leeds branch of the Basis Project, an England-wide Big Lottery funded scheme run by the charities the Refugee Council and Refugee Action, to help refugee community organisations to manage, develop and sustain their work.

Sam at Afrolatino said: “We are delighted that we can start this exciting project with Leeds Museum, thanks to the funding we received from Heritage Lottery Fund. We are really looking forward to seeing young refugees living in Leeds unleashing their creative talents through making their own films, while making new friends and having fun at the same time.”

Mani Thapa, Organisational Development Officer from the Basis project at Refugee Action in Leeds said: “It is fantastic that Afrolatino has received this funding so they can carry out this important project for young people and youths in Leeds including refugees and asylum seekers. Not only will it allow them to gain new practical skills in film-making and music, it will be a fun and creative way for them to explore their own cultural heritage in the city.”

Afrolatino is now calling on young people, asylum seekers and refugees in the area who are interested in the Afrolatino Imagination Project to contact them on 07944556436.

For more information about the Basis project, and its work to support refugee community organisations, please visit:www.thebasisproject.org.uk

ENDS

If you have any media enquires please contact Julia Ravenscroft, Press Officer at Refugee Action, on 0161 831 5454 or 07771 748 159.

Notes to editors:

• 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 received 30,000 visits from asylum seekers last year. As one of the country’s leading agencies in the field, Refugee Action has 28 years’ experience in pioneering innovative work in partnership with refugees.