MOHSEN’S STORY – UPDATE

Mohsen’s story

By Jenny, English as a second language teacher Earlier this year as part of our Lent appeal Mohsen shared his harrowing story of how he arrived at the Cardinal Hume Centre. Now I wanted to share the good news about how Mohsen is doing now.

APPEALUPDATE

After, as a 15 year old, fleeing a militia attack on his village in Sudan, what followed was two years of imprisonment and abuse before he finally arrived in London, alone, in February 2020.

Undoubtedly, you felt as much for all he lost as I do.

Last year Mohsen worked hard on reading, grammar and computer basics to get him ready for college. This year we helped him prepare for his exams and this term he passed his Level One Functional Skills English and Maths.

Mohsen also told you how he wants to be a mechanical engineer – and guess what! He’s passed his Mechanical Engineering Level One, as well as his driving theory test – all in English of course.

It can be difficult to find work experience in this field, but this spring Sarah, an Employment Advisor at the Centre, put him in touch with the First Steps Trust (a charity providing for people excluded from working life) which offered Mohsen work experience in a garage as well as training in motor vehicle mechanics. He was extremely excited about this opportunity, and after meeting them he told me: ‘It was really cool! The team was really helpful, I do love it and am very excited to start with them in the school holidays.’

Thanks to you, Mohsen, and others like him, from whom poverty and war have stolen so much have the chance to turn their lives around.

29 Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children received intensive language support last year.

Top: Mohsen studying English at the Centre. Bottom: Mohsen and Jenny. Photos: Fergus Burnett Photography