Reading Humanists

“You are the first person to smile at my face since I left my mother”

In this talk Sam, along with a friend with recent lived experience of the UK's asylum system, will talk about the realities of displacement, the challenges of navigating Home Office bureaucracy, the trauma caused by hostile policies and the work done by direct aid volunteers here in Reading. She will answer commonly posed questions and dispel frequently repeated myths.

Each refugee's story is different, but they share the common goals of living in safety and the hope of giving back to the country that has offered them refuge. By sharing information and humanising refugee stories we hope to aid integration and well-being for all community members, however long they have lived here.

When refugees first arrive in the UK it can be bewildering for them. Navigating a new country and a foreign language is an overwhelming challenge, made worse if you have no money and feel scared and alone. Sam Jonkers is a volunteer with Care4Calais, a volunteer-led refugee charity delivering essential aid and support to asylum seekers and refugees living in the local area. Care4Calais believes in a fair and tolerant British society and advocates for a welcoming and inclusive attitude towards refugees.

Volunteers meet up with refugees to provide a friendly face and helping hand, collecting and distributing essential items, assisting with paperwork and practical tasks, with the aims of Befriending, Empowering, Advocating and Campaigning. Unable to work and living on just £9.95 per week in isolation of mass accommodation sites, trauma and stress are often exacerbated by the system.

Those who seek asylum in the UK have many hurdles to overcome, facing many barriers to integration and a hostile environment. Recent policies aimed at creating a hostile environment, such as the Rwanda Policy and language which scapegoats migrants have been linked to the cause of last summer's riots and community tensions. Care4Calais has been at the forefront of leading campaigns promoting refugee rights such as the Stop Rwanda campaign and the campaign to close camps on military sites and barges.

We're delighted to have Terry Dixon (who organises Terry's Reading Walkabouts) to give us A Guided Tour of Reading Town Centre. Come and join us for a wonderful opportunity to find out about some of the history of Reading. All Welcome.

Terry will provide us with a guided walk of about two miles through Reading town centre, lasting around two and a half hours. Along the way we'll hear about the history of Forbury Gardens, Reading Abbey, war and battles, famous people and 5B's, two myths with some wonderful stories, and two powerful women from Reading's past.

For our next meeting we have decided to read about truth, data, and developing a world view based on facts.

Suggested Reading

• How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers, by Tim Harford
• Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, By Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund

If you don’t have the time for any books, you could read articles by David Spiegelhalter, listen to his talks on YouTube.

Do you listen to More or Less on Radio 4? Perhaps you are already ready to participate!

Whatever you decide to read or listen, join us for a stimulating discussion with like-minded people in a relaxed atmosphere.

In How to Make the World Add Up, Tim Harford draws on his experience as both an economist and presenter of the BBC's radio show More or Less. He takes us deep into the world of disinformation and obfuscation, bad research and misplaced motivation to find those priceless jewels of data and analysis that make communicating with numbers worthwhile. Harford's characters range from the art forger who conned the Nazis, to the stripper who fell in love with the most powerful congressman in Washington, to famous data detectives such as John Maynard Keynes, Daniel Kahneman and Florence Nightingale. He reveals how we can evaluate the claims that surround us with confidence, curiosity and a healthy level of scepticism.

In Factfulness, Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. They reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective — from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).