Watch: North West Migrants Forum’s Social Café is like a family to Derry immigrants

Connor Sharkey is the media and communications officer for North West Migrants Forum. He explained the role the Social Café serves.

“It's about providing a safe place for people who have come to the city seeking asylum, refugees, international students, we give them a safe place and social place, it's their place. They come here, they play board games, they play cards, they learn English, so it's a classroom, It's a safe space where people can meet friends and feel they are among allies.”

During the Journal's visit to the Social Café, we saw people playing pool, chatting and having a laugh.

An important part of the Social Café is its free English lessons. We spoke with Helen, a volunteer English teacher.

Helen described her goals for her English lessons as “a strong emphasis on being able to communicate and speak clearly, so there is a lot of pronunciation work and things the migrants will need to go outside, so to ask questions, to build their confidence, which is their biggest barrier”.

“It's interesting,” Helen added, “because, across the spectrum of classes we have people from all over the place, and the way they use their language can be very varied. I've had students with natural speech impediments, so it's about building their confidence.”

With many different nationalities and languages to teach English to Helen spoke on the challenges she faces. “Some of the biggest barriers are confidence, number two is that they come here with their own set of problems and number three, they know that they need the language.

“One of the biggest challenges I've faced is saying we can't spoon-feed you English. You are going to have to put in some work and it's not going to happen overnight,” said Helen.

Despite the challenges Helen’s role brings, she takes great pride in what she does. She said: "Nothing gets me fired up as much as seeing them lifting their chins off the floor but getting them to use English when they had no hope in their heads that they would ever be able to use English, I think that's the most satisfying thing. It doesn't matter what the student’s background is, once you see they can learn and they can gain some confidence that's very gratifying.”

The Journal spoke with Ahmed, who is 25 years old and from Yemen. As a proud member of the LGBTQ community, he said that the Social Café is like a family to him.

Lastly, we spoke with Ala Alsygaly who is from South Yemen. He has been living in Derry for two years.

Sharing how he felt about Derry, he said: "The people are nice, people help us, we think the community here supports us.”

You can find the Social Café in the Embassy Building on Waterloo Place with English lessons every Thursday from 5:00pm to 7:00pm, open to everyone.

For more from the North West Migrants Forum check here: https://nwmf.org.uk/