Befriending

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We have trained over 40 volunteer befrienders to support clients, they provide friendship and companionship and help clients to engage in their new community and begin to feel at home.

Befriending enables clients who feel isolated or anxious to receive and give hospitality and improves their ability to interact and socialise. Befrienders are supported by a structure of guidance, regular feedback and presentations on international culture.

The health and social benefits of mentoring and befriending schemes for clients are universally recognised. From pupils experiencing difficulty at school to the isolated elderly, the government has done much in recent years to acknowledge and promote befriending as help for the vulnerable.

Our befriending project currently has around 20 active volunteers whose activities are much appreciated by clients. Clients may be referred for a variety of reasons but tend to be people who are socially isolated or suffering from health problems.

There is no set formula for a befriending role. The majority of refugees or asylum seekers are happy to simply share time with someone who can visit regularly, but they may also need help with their English, assistance with filling in forms or just practical information about accessing a service and finding their way around.

Volunteers are of varying ages and from a variety of backgrounds. Many have been through the asylum process themselves. Experience suggests that the most effective befriending relationships are those where the volunteer feels they have something to gain and learn from the experience.

For some volunteers this may be the first contact they have with people from another culture, so it can be a learning experience which dispels myths and opens eyes to the realities behind media stories about refugees and asylum seekers. For others, befriending can form part of a training course in social work or welfare.

"I wanted the real experience of meeting, understanding and helping asylum seekers and refugees". Shani, volunteer befriender

"I started as a Befriender which is ideal for students like me due to the flexibility of the hours. When I met my friend, a client of Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre, she said she'd like someone to accompany her to the Womens Group at the Centre for support. Watching as an outsider, I loved what the Womens Group had to offer, and found myself wishing I could become more involved. Whenever my friend..... Click here to read the rest of Shani's story.

"One of the people we referred to your project has been in to see us today and said how much she benefited from having someone befriend her, meeting up to go round Coventry and so on. She had been quite depressed and isolated, and being able to spend time with someone who clearly took an interest has made a very significant difference to her state of mind” extract from letter from a GP who referred a patient to our befriending project.

Another befriender says "Befriending has been a learning experience. How else does one understand the immigration debates that columnists and politicians debate about? It has put me in touch with some amazing people at the Refugee and Migrant Centre, given me a sense of the city I live in and its been fun planning meetings with my friend. As an immigrant myself Coventry seems like an exciting and ugly city – but it also seems a little more like home.”

“Being a student with little means or qualifications I felt unable to make grand gestures or even make a difference. However, being a befriender has taught me that whatever one can do is grand enough. In my case I am able to provide a friendship, local knowledge, and a person to call when they do not know who to call. My befriendees have become invaluable friends, who have taught me a new world view. Companionship is so important and the Irish proverb that ‘It is in the shelter of each other that people live’ could not be more true.”

If you are interested in becoming a befriender please contact Dionne Russell, Volunteer Coordinator, dionner@covrefugee.org, 024 7622 7254, ext 270