St Joseph's School Exhibition - City of Sanctuary Event

A fantastic event this morning, as I went to the Civic Centre in full robes to meet St Joseph's Primary School and the City of Sanctuary, to launch an exhibition put on by the school, to celebrate Refugee Week.

The school have been working on this project for two years, and were deservedly awarded the prestigious 'School of Sanctuary' award for the way they have embraced asylum seekers and refugees in their community and contributed to awareness raising on the issue.

We were treated to some fantastic singing by the children before the teacher, myself and Amber from the City of Sanctuary said our piece about the award, and the way Swansea has welcomed those seeking sanctuary here. 

Unity in Diversity is one of my Lord Mayor's Charities so I was pleased to contribute to this event, telling the audience that if you have food in your fridge, clothes on your body, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, then you are richer than 75% of the entire world.

As I said in my inaugural speech as Lord Mayor, Swansea has long benefitted from migrants and has a number of migrant communities, all of whom now think of the City as their home. These include the Irish, Italians, Chinese, Belgians, Spanish, Jews, Eastern Europeans, South Asians and now Syrians, Somalians, Afghans and many more.

The world is a much more dangerous place, with millions of people displaced from their home by war, oppression, religious and sexual discrimination and climate change. Many are impoverished, starving, separated from their family and friends, and placed in life-threatening situations as they seek to escape violence, famine, torture, sexual assault, intolerance and the loss of fundamental human rights.

We need to educate all generations about the facts behind migration, asylum seekers and refugees, so it was heart-warming to see youngsters learning about these issues and taking the initiative to pass on to others what they have learnt.