Page 7 - ROTO

Rotary Magazine for District 1210

A Polish immigrant who came to Shropshire 16 years ago has told a Rotary club of how she has helped to
set up an organisation to integrate European countries into the British culture.

Kate Fejfer, who is chair of the Shropshire European Organisation (SEO) involved in community
projects, was a guest speaker at Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club where she addressed more than 20
members. Kate, who has a son aged 13 and daughter aged nine, is married to an ambulance driver in the
town. He is Polish and they met in Wem.

She told Rotarians: “It wasn’t my aim to stay so long. But it is a pleasure to belong to the biggest group
of non-speaking English in the country. There are up to 5,000 in the Polish community in Shropshire
and we work closely with the Polish government and Polish consulate. They have visited Shrewsbury
numerous times.”
But in answer to a Rotarian’s question she said the town’s Polish born MP Daniel Kawczynski, who was
first elected to the seat in 2005, didn’t to her knowledge have any contact with the local Polish
community.
“We do try to promote our culture outside and Remembrance Sunday was very emotional,” she told the
Rotary club.
She said the SEO’s community work had been
recognised through awards from the mayor of
Shrewsbury and the Lord Lieutenant of
Shropshire. This had resulted in a higher
profile for Polish and other international
communities in Shropshire.
She spoke of plans to open a community café
next year. “It will be the biggest project for
next year,” said Kate who told Rotarians that
various events are organised to highlight
Polish culture and the culture of the other
international groups living in the area.
The SEO was set up to support the wider
integration of all European groups into local
communities and this helped integration
across the different groups as well as their
wider acceptance into the local host
community. The SEO provides support,
individual, family, and for business where
needed to all European citizens living and
working in the area. Often, problems arose
accessing key services such as education,
social, medical and financial where language
could provide a barrier. The SEO was a key
support in these circumstances.

Kate was full of praise for the high professional standards of the British police who have been very
supportive following an increase in hate crime incidents post Brexit.

More recently much of the work and support had been directed at other nationalities living in the
county, Romanians, Latvians, Hungarians and Malaysians whose numbers were smaller and support
networks less effective. There were 16-20 different cultures in Shrewsbury, but she was promoting the
Polish culture.
She added that the SEO worked with different inter-faith groups and a wide range of professionals
to ensure access could be gained to areas such as mental health, maternity and other specialist
services. Demand for services, and advise about access, had dramatically increased during the covid
pandemic.

WINTER 2021/22 ROTO 6