In search
of sanctuary
The Somalian refugee family meet Ben Still (right) and his team on arrival in the UK
BEN STILL explains why the Salvation Army church in Stepney, east London, is a founding member of a refugee sponsorship programme Interview by Emily Bright
I
MAGINE uprooting your entire life and fleeing your home to a country where the language is foreign to you and there’s a bewildering array of paperwork to plough through. All the while, you have to figure out how to find work, deal in a new currency and navigate the transport system. That’s exactly what one Somalian family have done. But thanks to the support of refugee sponsorship programme E123, run by four churches in east London, the family are now thriving. ‘The family said that the support had far exceeded anything they expected,’ says project manager Ben Still, who is part of
The Salvation Army’s Stepney church, one of the participants. ‘They feel confident and comfortable with our church volunteer group and love their house.’ Resettling refugees has long been a cause close to Ben’s heart, but he was aware that it would be a significant project to take on. ‘Our church was little, so we couldn’t do it on our own,’ he explains. ‘But we did have an ecumenical partnership amongst a group of four churches. We had some discussions around whether or not we could resettle
refugees, and decided that we wanted to help.’ Ben now works alongside 10 people who play key support roles in the programme. The Covid-19 pandemic had put plans on pause for a year, but, in February this year, two years after the group officially formed, it welcomed its first refugee family. ‘In terms of being more self-sufficient and picking up how the transport systems
The support far exceeded anything the family expected
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