Annual Report2013/2014Charity no.:1096908

Childrenat our Nowruz event to celebrate the New Year

© ACAA

Contents

ACAA: An IntroductionA Message from the ChairDirector’s ReportInformation, Advice and Support Services Employment, Mentoring and Skills StrandSupporting Women from AfghanistanSupplemeSupplementary School/Extra Curriculum SupportESOL - English for Speakers of Other LanguagesLewisham Muslim OutreachOur Work in AfghanistanGovernance and FinanceReserves PolicyFinancial Statement

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ACAA: An Introduction

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Our mission is to empower, educate and support Afghans and Central Asians living in the UK. By providing legal, educational and employment support for migrants andrefugees, we enable them to integrate and prosper within British society - we believe that this aids social cohesion and enriches society as a whole.

IIn Afghanistan we work to promote human rights and democracy, focusing our efforts on some of the country’s most vulnerable people, including women, children, inter-nally displaced people, disabled people and returnees.

A Message from the Chair

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This year has been an important one for ACAA as we have continued with our work in Afghanistan, and have seen our Citizen’s Advice Centres in Kabul and Pul-e Khumri grow and respond to local demand, particularly in the area of providing employment sup-port. We are also very pleased to have seen an increase in the percentage of women visiting the centre for legal advice, with sixty-four percent of attendants now being women.

In the UK we have continued to provide advice for refugees and asylum seekers who have been experiencing issues with employ-ment, integration and language barriers.

Our key achievements include:

• We have recruited new teachers for the Supplementary School, which gives extra support to children struggling at school, so that we have been able to help more students and children with their studies. • We received further funding from the Home Office, to continue our work on the Lewisham Muslim Outreach Program which works to prevent radicalisation by reaching out to Muslim women and promoting integration and solidarity.• For the rst time we have collaborated on a project helping young people to get involved in sport, by providing free football coa-ching from professional FA Level Two Coaches for children in Lewisham.• We received an award for commitment to good volunteer management and a Bronze award from the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education for having a quality framework in place at our Supplementary School.

It is important to acknowledge that none of our achievements would have been possible without the continued support of our vo-lunteers, Supplementary School teachers and other supporters. I would like to thank our donors for their continued generosity, which helps us to provide the services that benet the lives of immigrants and refugees in the UK and groups living in poverty in Afghanistan.’

Dagi Dagiev, June 2015.

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’Throughout 2013/14, thanks to the hard work and generosity of our staff and supporters, we continued to provide high quality and much needed services to the Afghan and Central Asian communities in Lewisham, London and the UK. We received awards in recognition for our work with children at our Supplementary School and with volunteers. We are proud of our work to support Afghan women and to promote their rights, both in the UK and in Afghanistan. We have also continued to take part in the European Campaign for Human Rights for the people of Afg-hanistan along with other Afghan communities in Europe to ensure the rights of all Afghans are respected, wherever they are, and to encourage ttolerance, understanding and democratic values in the diaspora. Over the next year, with the help of our Trustees, staff and volunteers, as well as our donors and other supporters, ACAA will continue to evolve and adapt in order to further our reach and continue to help the UK’s migrant and refugee community.’

Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi, June 2015.

Director’s Report’Throughout 2013/14, thanks to the hard work and generosity of our staff and supporters, we continued to provide high quality and much needed services to the Afghan and Central Asian communities in Lewisham, London and the UK. We received awards in recognition for our work with children at our Supplementary School and with volunteers. We are proud of our work to support Afghan women and to promote their rights, both in the UK and in Afghanistan. We have also continued to take part in the European Campaign for Human Rights for the people of Afg-hanistan along with other Afghan communities in Europe to ensure the rights of all Afghans are respected, wherever they are, and to encourage ttolerance, understanding and democratic values in the diaspora. Over the next year, with the help of our Trustees, staff and volunteers, as well as our donors and other supporters, ACAA will continue to evolve and adapt in order to further our reach and continue to help the UK’s migrant and refugee community.’

Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi, June 2015.

Director’s Report

OUR ACTIVITIES

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Information, Advice and Support ServicesFunded by: Big Lottery Fund

OOur advice service aims to provide free, professional advice and guidance relating to issues that affect Afghans living in Britain; these include benets, housing, debt and immigration. Speci-cally, we impart advice on social security and provide af-ter-grant-of-asylum support. We also assist in resolving disputes relating to housing and debt and offer translation assistance for non-English speakers. A key way in which we provide advice and supposupport is through our mentoring scheme, which offers one-to-one mentoring for individuals who approach us for help, or who are referred to us by other agencies. Our mentors come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, and are trai-ned to offer assistance in all areas relating to transitioning to a new country and lifestyle

Employment, Mentoring and Skills StrandFunded by: Big Lottery Fund

Our mentors help with problems relating to immigration and asylum, mental health, education, employment. They work on a one-to-one basis to provide guidance on specic issues as well as providing general friendship and support.

2013/14:2013/14: In order to raise public awareness of our employment mentoring scheme, a lot of outreach work has been done this year to inform local organisations about the service, and to engage potential service users in Lewisham and South East London.

AA good relationship with the Refugee Council has been establis-hed, and they have been referring mentees to our employment mentoring program. Meetings have also been held with local or-ganisations in Lewisham and surrounding boroughs, such as Jobcentre Plus, Healthwatch Lewisham, Community Connecti-ons, Southwark Day Centre for Refugees and Migrant’s Rights Network.

Further to this, a volunteer was recruited in November whose role it is to attend the newly opened Greenwich Migrant’s Hub. The volunteer attends the drop-in session every Tuesday to inform migrants in South East London about our mentoring schemes. Initial assessments are also carried out at the hub to ensure an easier process of matching mentees with mentors.

Achievements:

AAwards -The Afghanistan and Central Asian Association was awar-ded a certicate of achievement for showing commitment to good volunteering management by the Volunteer Centre Lewisham. This was awarded because of the relevant policies and procedures being developed and our maintaining good management proce-dures when supporting volunteers. ACAA was also awarded the Bronze Award for having a quality teaching framework in place at our Supplementary School from Continyou, the National Resource Centre for Supplementary Education. We are now working towards the Silver Award.

Looking ahead: Despite good relationships with other organisa-tions, the rate of referral to our mentoring scheme hasn’t been as high we would have hoped. To improve referral rates, a new Muslim volunteer will be recruited for easier access to religious and cultural sites such as mosques, in order to raise awareness about the prog-ram and reach out to people directly.

Case study: The positive impact had by our mentoring scheme can be seen through the improvements made by one of our men-tees. The mentee in question’s husband worked full time during the week and she, without a job or any activities to occupy her during the day, became lonely and dispirited.

She began attending ACAA’s ESOL classes at the weekend in an at-tempt to learn English and integrate further into the community; however she realised that further work would be necessary and joined the mentoring scheme. Her mentor helped her to write a Curriculum Vitae, resulting in her gaining volunteer roles at various community events. The mentor also encouraged her to do some social enterprise work as she was passionate about baking, and so sheshe began selling her baked products at the Saturday ESOL classes. These activities have helped her to gain useful employability skills and to increase her social circle.

OUR ACTIVITIES

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Supporting Women from AfghanistanFunded by: Big lottery Fund

Our women’s project aims to encourage Afghan women to integrate into the local community through participating in clubs, societies and volunteer work.

Achievements:

SSkills Development - This year our members have become increasingly involved in community event planning. Forty of our mem-bers were able to help organise an event celebrating Afghan New Year and Eid, which was attended by over eighty people. This expe-rience helped the women to develop skills in marketing, time-management, organisation, budgeting and team work, all of which are useful for increasing employability. Furthermore, the experience provided the women an opportunity to enjoy themselves and grow their social circles through interacting and working with others.

Ten of our women members are now volunteering for our Supplementary School, therefore further improving their employability whilst also working towards the worthwhile goal of helping children and young people get the most out of education.

Activities - In addition to this, twenty women have recently gone on an educational outing to visit some of London’s most famous cultural sites, giving them a greater knowledge of London and the UK’s history,as well as the opportunity to socialise and make friends.

LLooking ahead: In order to reach out to more women from Afghanistan we plan to establish connections with local schools to nd out if any of the students have parents from Afghanistan or Central Asia who are in need of support or advice.

In the coming year we hope to arrange at least ve family trips to parks and museums in London, in order to aid understanding of British culture and to help our members de-stress and enjoy themselves.

OUR ACTIVITIES

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Supplementary School/Extra Curriculum SupportFunded by: BBC Children in Need

OOur Supplementary School classes offer children and young people who are struggling at school the opportunity to study and learn in a fun, supportive environment. With teachers who are able to speak both English and the mother tongue of the majority of stu-dents, pupils are given the chance to ask any questions about their school work and to clarify topics that they are nding difficult. With one volunteer for every ve students, our classes provide a high level of attention for each individual child’s needs. Children and young people are able to take responsibility for their own learning, and offer suggestions as to what the classes should cover. This meansmeans that they are involved in planning and organising the classes, which improves their cooperation skills and increases their condence in interacting with one another and their peers at school. The teaching approach we have adopted helps close the gap between underachieving children and their classmates.

Sara, Age 12 - ‘Before I didn’t really enjoy secondary school because I found it hard to read and do some maths. Here, I have a lot of help to improve my reading and maths. ACAA gave me the condence to do my school work on my own.’

2013/14: Over the past months the Supplementary School has expanded, continuing to provide tuition to children in Lewisham and surrounding boroughs, with new volunteers being recruited to assist the teachers and provide children with the appropriate support. We have held three-hour sessions every Saturday at The Albany Centre, at which English, maths and science are taught, along with Dari and Pashtu. We have also paired up a number of mentors with individual children to talk to them about their experi-ence at school and support them in their learning.

Jalal Nadri, Age 10 – ‘I like the Saturday school because I can learn my native language and speak to my cousins in Afghanistan.’

Achievements:

Attainment - A large number of the children who have been attending the Supplementary School have begun to show progress. With most children starting out with below average attainment levels at school, the majority are improving by one level each term. Their schools have been very happy with their progress and are encouraging more students who have recently arrived in the UK to make use of our services. Those children who have come to us speaking little English have become active listeners and shown grea-ter condence when speaking; many now even assist their parents with translation.

Extra Support - A minority of our students have shown little or no improvement since starting lessons. To tackle this we have been in contact with their teachers at school in order to understand why this may be the case, and have found that some have special edu-cational needs or learning difficulties. These students now receive one-to-one support from a volunteer who keeps track of their at-tainment and learning needs, and provides extra support and guidance when needed.

Activities - In addition to providing academic support for our students we have also arranged many extra-curricular activities and events to enable them to have fun whilst learning and gain new experiences. During the half term there were a number of activities for both children and their parents to enjoy; we visited the British Museum, Greenwich Park and went on a tour of Parliament. We have celebrated various holidays including Eid, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter and International Women’s Day with events, at which the children have gained condence and had fun giving dance performances and poetry readings.

ChildChildren and Young people have also had the opportunity to get involved in Tai Chi Yoga Classes which have taken place every Satur-day after lessons. Delivered by a professional trainer, these classes have given an introduction to both the theory and practical side to yoga. Once a month we have also held healthy eating sessions, where children take part in planning meals and tasting food from different cultures.

Raghad, Age 10 – ‘I enjoy coming here because this is a very kind and friendly place. The adults here help me so much to improve my spelling and maths.’

Case Study:

Hangama is an Afghani housewife with four children. Her children have been attending the Saturday School for a year whilst she has been attending the ESOL Classes, which we run at the same time and in the same place for parents. Hangama has some health issues which prevent her from pursuing her employment goals, but she has high hopes for her children and wants them to do their very best at school. She has noticed that since her children have been attending the Supplementary School, their self-esteem and academic performance at school have both improved; as have their behaviour and attitude toward learning.

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Funded by: The City Bridge Trust How we work: Our ESOL classes are offered to all members of the community aged 16 and over and are run every Saturday for two hours. Through these lessons we endeavour to develop students’ self-confidence, enable students to engage more fully with their communities and raise cultural awareness to aid integration.

2013/13:2013/13: Throughout the year we have been offering Entry 1, 2 and 3 classes for English language beginners, and ca-tering to around 30 students per week from a wide range of backgrounds, including Afghan, Spanish and Polish people. We have recruited an additional six volunteer teaching assistants to help students with one-to-one support. In addition, we have encouraged our students to visit the local library and to start reading more widely in English.

Achievements:

Attainment - The learning outcomes of our students are regularly evaluated by our ESOL teachers and the majority of students have shown significant improvement in their speaking, writing and reading skills.

Integration - As a result of their improved confidence when communicating in English, many of our students are now better able to benefit from our other training and employment services. Five of our students have been successful in their applications for British Citizenship.

Case Studies:

Kamil, one of our students, had this to say about the ESOL classes: ‘I would like to learn English because in the future I need to find a good job. This is, for me, very important. At the moment I work with Polish people so I only speak Polish at work. I like the lessons because the people are nice, funny, and the teachers are very good.’

KhattharinKhattharin said: ‘I am learning English because I want to improve my English, improve my ability to speak, read and write. I am here because I have plans in the future to teach English in Thailand and teach people in England. I want to be an English teacher one day who can help others. I am also writing books and short stories in English so I need to have perfect English, and my goal is to do CELTA. I enjoy learning very much.’

ESOL: English for Speakers of Other Languages

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Funded by: The Home Office Prevent Programme

The aim of the Lewisham Outreach Programme has been to prevent radicalisation of vulnerable people and to raise community awareness about the Prevent movement in Lewisham through reaching out, not only to Afghan women, but to women of all Muslim backgrounds.

2013/14:2013/14: Following the success of the Afghan Outreach Project that aimed to prevent vulnerable people from being drawn towards terrorism, the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association received further funding from the Home Office to enable it to continue with this project in partnership with Lewisham Council.

AA series of ten workshops were held at which various academics and Prevent workers led discussions on topics relating to Islam, Western perspectives of Islam, freedom of religion, democracy and radicalisation. Speakers included Dr. Jenni-fer Eggert PhD, Research Consultant at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue; Tehmina Kazi, Director at British Muslims for Se-cular Democracy; and Zara Faris, a researcher and international speaker for the Muslim Debate Initiative. These works-hops were designed to promote understanding of the teachings of Islam in relation to personal freedom and democratic principles, to improve understanding of the driving forces behind radicalisation, and to ignite discussion around how radicalisation can be prevented.

Achievements:

Ideas - Many interesting points were raised during the workshops, with both speakers and audience members offering perspectives on the topics being discussed. At the ninth Workshop entitled ‘Islam Challenging Extremism’, for example, attendee Deniz Osman argued that feelings of alienation are often the underlying cause of extremist behaviour, and that integration within British communities is essential in tackling radicalisation of young people. At Workshop 7: ‘Immig-rant; Muslim; Female; Triple Threat?’ Zuhal Saiq offered her perspective on how Muslim women are discriminated against on the grounds of gender, clothing and faith, and how this can make integration difficult.

Debate - Thanks to lively discussion and debate, many of those who attended the workshops left with different perspec-tives from those they came in with. Before Workshop 8: ‘Muslim Communities: Between Integration and Securitisation’, twelve out of twenty-four audience members said they only had an average understanding of Prevent and its aims, and only six said they had a very good understanding. After the workshop nine had a good understanding whilst ten had a very good understanding. Also encouraging were the results of the questionnaire from Workshop 2: ‘Radicalisation Among Youth’. At the beginning thirteen out of twenty-one attendees believed communities could not make a diffe-rence in overcoming radicalisation and extremism. By the end, sixteen out of twenty-one believed the opposite: that local communities do have the power to tackle the issue of radicalisation.

Understanding - As a result of this project we at the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association have gained a deeper understanding of the perspectives of Afghan and Muslim women in Lewisham and their experiences of moving to the UK. More importantly, we have raised awareness and sparked discussion around the issues of integration, and created a platform for further outreach work that will help build community spirit and solidarity for Afghans in Lewisham.

Lewisham Muslim Outreach Programme

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Funded by: the UK government

WeWe provide support to vulnerable people in Afghanis-tan through our two Citizen’s Advice Centres in Kabul and Baghlan Province. The centres are designed to provide legal and other advice for people who are least able to access their rights, including women, di-sabled people, returning refugees and internally displa-ced people. Empowering women and equal opportunities are central to all our work.

2013/14: Citizens’ Advice Centres in Kabul and Pul-e Khumri continued to provide free, impartial, confiden-tial advice on a wide range of issues and services in Kabul and Baghlan Province. Centres offered legal advice, information, employment advice, education support, health information and training. Outreach work was also conducted for vulnerable clients unable toto access the Centres and to provide information to more target groups about our work. Clients were helped by the Centres and/or signposted to other avai-lable services. Partnerships were strengthened with the authorities and other local service providers and local community leaders received training. . Volunteering and assistance in accessing employment was developed through placements at the Centres and with other partners. In total, nearly one thousand women and men recei-ved legal advice last year and nearly 1300 women and men attended our outreach work.

Case Study:

Shabnam is 14.She got married 8 years ago when she was 6. She was engaged from birth and when her family moved to Iran, her fiancé’s family made her stay and honour her marriage.

She was beaten and tortured by her in-laws. She gave birth to twins when she was 13. SheShe said her husband wouldn’t provide enough and didn’t support her financially as he was bound to do by law. Her father had to send her money to survive. She tried to get divorced but her family didn’t want her to re-marry. She ran away with a boyfriend.

TheThe Citizen Advice Centre sent her case to Baghlan provincial court and provided her with a solicitor to help her defend her case. We helped her get medical and psychological help as she had been beaten. She was able to get divorced and we carried out family counselling so she could return to live with her own family.

Our Work in Afghanistan

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As you would expect with the growth of activities, we saw a corresponding growth in our annual budget in 2013-2014.

Our annual accounts show that income grew from over £119,000 to over £168,000. The organization still punches far above its weight in terms of what we achieve on the funds we receive, thanks in large part to the high number of volunteers who help us with so much of what we do.

We concentrated on improving our governance in 2014, expanding our board members to include people with specific skills on fundraising, finance and law.

AsAs in previous years, several of those who had previously volunteered with us or benefitted from services became trustees or continued to have a role in the organization as mentors or to help with fundraising.

Governance and Finance

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ACAA aims to maintain reserves sufficient to meet our commitments to existing and envisaged project work for at least the next 12 months.

Ultimately our aim is to be in a position to have adequate funding to cover activities over a longer period of time and sufficient general unrestricted funds of at least 3 months' operational overheads, to cover any short-term funding gaps.

With this in mind, increasing both our sources of unrestricted funding and the reserves are priorities for the orga-nisation and have been included in our Financial Plan and Fundraising Strategy for this year.

At the end of the financial year 2013 - 2014 our reserves were £688. Our target now is to increase reserves to £1,200 by the end of the next financial year in 2015

Reserves Policy

Total funds brought forward: £17,761.

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Expenditure for the year ending 31 October 2014: £184,335

This was mainly spent on community development activities with £820 being spent on governance.

Income for the year ending 31 October 2014: £168,488

Financial Statement

Our OrganisationYou can find out more about ACAA, our staff, volunteers and our work on our website.

www.acaa.org.uk

Afghanistan &Central Asian Association