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Overview Of The Year                                                                As always there has been a huge      is a refugee from Eritrea who
                                                                                                                                 came to Newcastle 20
                                                                                            amount of development, progress
        by Julian Prior, CEO                                                                and challenges to report on this     years ago. He leads the
                                                                                            year. The enclosed is a very brief   Eritrean Community
        The need for and difference that our   Enabling our beneficiaries to have           summary that will hopefully give you   Organisation and is
        services make is summarised well by   some very basic needs met, makes              something of a flavour. However, if   involved in numerous
        the following quote from one of our   such a difference to their ability to         you would like monthly updates you   refugee community
        guests on our Hosting project.       overcome their challenges and take             can contact us to receive our email   initiatives promoting
                                             more control of their future. None             news and/or become a friend on       integration and
                                             of this would be possible without              facebook.                            employment. He is a social
                                             the support of our dedicated staff,                                                 entrepreneur and owns several
           Before I was hosted I was         volunteers, funders, landlords and               Over the last year we have         houses in the west of Newcastle. Sirak
                                                                                                                                 is also a former Board member of The
           anxious about the future, I       other supporters for which we are all            helped more people across a        British Refugee Council.
           didn’t sleep, I was feeling very   extremely grateful. I would also like to        wider geographic area with the
           depressed. I wasn’t feeling       pay tribute to the many people we                support of more volunteers than    We were thrilled to partner with
           happy and I didn’t know what      support. Their bravery and resilience is         ever before (see page 3).          Westgate Baptist Church in opening
           to do. I was unsure about who     truly inspiring and many have had a                                                 a new house for asylum seekers with
           could help me. But since going    profound impact on shaping the way                                                  no recourse to public funds. This
           to the host I sleep very well,    our services are provided.                     In July we launched our pilot project   will provide three more vulnerable
           straight from the first night.                                                   LET (Learn English Together) that    people with some much needed
                                                                                            supports other organisations to      stability with the added benefit of
                                             Please note, some of the images used in this report do
                                             not directly relate to the beneficiary stories or quotes.  deliver English classes to migrants. We   support from the church community.
                                                                                            found that many groups would like to
                                                                                            offer language support but needed    We are also very pleased to have
                                                                                            some help to get started. Through    been chosen by The Lord Mayor of
                                                                                            LET we equip small community         Newcastle, Councillor David Down,
                                                                                            organisations across the North East   to be one of the two charities he
                                                                                            with training and resources to enable   has chosen for the year (2018/19).
                                                                                            them to deliver their own English    We look forward to working together
                                                                                            sessions to migrants within their    to raise awareness of the needs of
                                                                                            commuities based on our functional,   so many migrants in our region and
                                                                                            communicative model of delivery.     the opportunities to be part of the
                                                                                            See page 15 for more information.    solution in helping them overcome
                                                                                                                                 their exclusion, poverty and
                                                                                            In August we moved our base          destitution.
                                                                                            in Sunderland from The Place to
                                                                                            Fusebox at 90 Coronation Street
                                                                                            which is also the home of several
                                                                                            other charities. This building meets
                                                                                            our needs better and with a third
                                                                                            classroom has enabled us to increase
                                                                                            our provision of free English classes.

                                                                                            In February we welcomed Sirak
                                                                                            Hagos to our Board of Trustees. Sirak
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