Zahia came to the UK from Algeria in 2005. She arrived in the UK with no family or friends, having left her abusive husband, and spent the next five years attempting to navigate the UK asylum process alone.

She finally received leave to remain in 2010 but for a period between those two dates, she was homeless. “The Home Office gave me a room at first, but then refused my first claim so I had nowhere to live. Sometimes I couldn’t eat. When I was cold I sat in McDonalds. If I had a bus pass I could sit on the bus all day, but I couldn’t always do that. It was very hard.”

Zahia came to the UK alone after suffering domestic abuse. “[My husband] wanted to kill me. I ran away, but he still wanted to find me,” she said. She came to the UK with no family or friends, and has attempted to build a life for herself since then.

She came to Southwark Day Centre after a friend recommended it to her. “Someone told me of this place, they said they would help - that you find everything there. Food, clothes. When I came here I saw [day centre worker] Bettina, and she has helped me so much.”

She is now living in Camberwell. “Now I have a home, because these people are such good friends to me.”
While her situation is now more stable, Zahia still visits the day centres to socialise and catch up with friends. “You can eat hot food here, I socialise and I have friendships here. I feel like I have security here. When I come here, I am more relaxed. This is the only place I feel safe,” she says.

Zahia still suffers from health problems that began when she was homeless or living in very poor accommodation, and she wants to highlight the plight that so many asylum seekers face when they come to the UK. “Some people are suffering in this country,” she says. “I’m ok now, but other people are still suffering.” She hopes in the future to get a job working with children.

Our day centres exist not just to provide practical help to people going through an extremely difficult time, but also to offer support, solace and a break from the isolation that being an asylum seeker or refugee in the UK can bring. We offer counselling to clients, as well as more general support: some of our clients were victims of torture in their home countries, others have arrived here as a result of trafficking, and all of them have been through a traumatic upheaval. The support they receive from more official sources is always limited and at worse makes their situation more difficult.
​
As a small local charity providing a crucial service for hundreds of people, we always need funds and volunteers. Working at SDCAS is not only rewarding, it is a unique way to become involved with your local community. Check our volunteering page for opportunities and if you can support us financially every month, you will be making a huge difference. You can join our Friends scheme on our donating and fundraising page or make a one-off donation via our JustGiving page.

When you are over seventy years old and have been homeless and without immigration status for many years, it does not seem much to ask for the right to a safe place to stay and for support at the end of your life. Especially when you discover that you have been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

One of our clients, Cecile Weta, was refused this right, repeatedly, over a period of ten years. However, after a gruelling court appearance and lengthy decision period afterwards, Cecile has finally received the news that she has been given the right to stay in the UK according to Article 3, Humanitarian Protection. We at SDCAS were thrilled to celebrate her news with her over tea and cake at the Copleston Centre.

Cecile's journey has been a long and dangerous one. She was abused and threatened with death in her home country, from which she fled to seek asylum in Britain. She lost her children to the violence which continues to be perpetrated in that country to this day. However she has continued to speak out against this violence against women, in particular, as Vice-President of the Congolese Women's Support Group. She has encouraged many victims like herself and maintained a strong Christian faith throughout all her setbacks. Cecile was even interviewed on the radio by Cardinal Vincent Nichols who admired her faith and wanted to raise awareness of her case and others like her.

Cecile has always remained hopeful that her request for asylum would eventually be granted and she has dreamed of having just a "little space of her own" where she could prepare her favourite foods. She has nonetheless always been grateful for the hospitality and kindness of strangers and friends on her long journey through the asylum process, especially the Salesian Sisters of Beckenham who share their home and SDCAS workers and volunteers who she calls her "family". She also remains immensely grateful to the lawyers of Southwark Law Centre and the support workers at the Notre Dame Refugee Centre as well as the specialists at Freedom From Torture.

Now Cecile faces a new challenge, that of accessing the financial support to which she is entitled and she is grateful for the welfare advice and support given by St Christopher's Hospice where she is receiving therapeutic treatment. These challenges have not altered her positive attitude, faith and hope and we are privileged to have such a client among us. We continue to support her until she achieves her independence. Once she is settled somewhere she plans to study English seriously and looks forward to cooking more of her favourite Congolese dishes. We hope she will continue to join in SDCAS activities as long as she is able, especially the storytelling sessions and outings which she has enjoyed so much this year.   

Family is not always blood. It’s people in your life who want you in theirs: the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what. That’s what the Southwark Day Centre is for me. I could never wish for any better family than this.

My name is Bilen* and I am 19 years old. This is my story. I grew up with my grandparents in my country Eritrea as my mother left me when I was eleven months old with my older sister. I don’t know anything about my dad as he was jailed in Ethiopia and my family never heard anything about him since that time. My mother moved to the United Kingdom. But she spent over ten years struggling hard to get her residence permit and was finally granted it. It was in 2011 that I got a chance to finally meet my mother for the first time.

And months later I left my country, when I was fourteen years old to Sudan, so I could join my Mother. We started the process as soon as I arrived in Khartoum. But due to some reasons my appeal was refused twice by the UK embassy. This was the moment that I totally gave up on it. Everything seemed to be hopeless. Imagine it for a young little girl living all by herself in a country which is not secure. I was staying at home all the time; nothing to do, no education, no family, trying to cope with the culture (as it is a Sharia country) and it was way too hard for me. I didn’t feel I fitted into life with the way of my living. I was likely to feel hopeless and sad, more likely to feel as if nothing really makes a difference; and there is nothing I or anyone can do about it. People say the worst part is waiting, waiting helplessly. I spent more of my years in there crying.

My mother was in huge fear and worry about my safety there. Hence the Southwark Day Centre team contacted the UNHCR in Khartoum and I was guaranteed the basic human rights and physical security to ensure that I didn’t have to return involuntarily to a country where could face persecution.

Through out all this procedure the Southwark Day Centre were on my mother’s side giving her hope and trying their best 
to succeed in getting my visa. Prevention is better than cure, and most definitely so in the case of visa applications. 
My visa application was planned and checked thoroughly by the Southwark Day Centre with the necessary expertise and 
experience in the field of immigration. They took the utmost care to prevent our frustration at the visa being turned
down. On 14th August 2015, the judge accepted my case and I finally got my visa. I arrived to the United Kingdom on the 
third month of this year.

I was warmly welcomed by Southwark Day Centre with a Big Welcoming Party. I have never felt so loved this way. I always thank God that he gave me such a big family. I got to meet so many lovely people out there. Encouraging and supporting me whenever I need them, they are always there for me.

As a new arrival in a new country, the main problem that everyone faces is searching for potential advisers in every situation. I was lucky enough to have Southwark Day Centre who provided me with general advice with particular emphasis on my education and immigration issues. As a result of this, I am now studying on my access to higher education 
in one of the colleges in London. And with their support, I have got my travel document plus biometric residence permit 
within three months and travelled to Germany this summer.

Words cannot express my gratitude toward the Southwark Day Centre for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, who are representing the impact of a truly charitable organisation. Changing the lives of so many people every day in every aspects of their lives. Even though every refugee’s story is different and their anguish personal, Southwark Day Centre makes them
share a common thread of uncommon courage, the courage not only to survive, but to preserve and rebuild their shattered 
lives. They work to promote our belief in respect for human rights and freedom rather than fear. This is the kind of hope that enables us to live fully in the present moment.

* not her real name