Hope lies ahead for Afghan families in Herefordshire

The bikes have been provided by Hereford City of Sanctuary along with training from BikeRight, giving the women freedom to get around their adopted home.

Amid much laughter and a certain amount of wobbling, they cruise up and down the park’s handsome avenue of trees applauded by volunteers from the charity. It has just been awarded a grant of £1000 from the High Sheriff’s Fund which will pay for further training and equipment.

Afghan women in Hereford are provided with bicycles by the City of Sanctuary charity.

City of Sanctuary

City of Sanctuary was set up in 2016 to provide welcome and support to the resettled community of Syrians (later Afghans and Ukrainians) fleeing war or persecution at home. Volunteers give regular one-to-one English lessons – including to asylum seekers until they were moved on in January – and run a drop-in centre at the Friends Meeting House every Friday.

There I meet 27-year-old Fahima, who arrived in Hereford from Kabul with her husband and two small children in December 2021. Along with a dozen other families they came under the UK’s resettlement scheme for those who had worked with British forces and were at risk after the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.

Pop-up dining

As well as learning to ride bikes, Fahima and three friends, Frozan, Hamida and Shukria, have put on several successful pop-up restaurants at Hereford’s Left Bank thanks to owner Gary Waring, who provides both venue and kitchen.

The women each acquired their health and hygiene certificates – no mean feat in a second language. Now some of the Afghan men have followed suit, delivering a celebration feast on April 19 to mark the end of a month’s fasting for Ramadan.

Afghan women in Hereford are provided with bicycles by the City of Sanctuary charity.

On April 26 Fahima and her colleagues cooked a three-course Afghan dinner for up to 100 guests at an City of Sanctuary gala evening at Broxwood Court, near Leominster, home of Mike and Annie Allen.

How did Fahima feel about the prospect?

She shrugs: “I am used to cooking for my family at home in Afghanistan – 40 or 50 people in my parents’ house. It will be fine.”

She must miss home and family so much.

“Of course; I speak to my mum and dad every day.”

She has a 10-month-old son born in Hereford.

“My mum wants to meet him.”

Maybe one day?

She hopes so.

“Inshallah.”

Afghan women in Hereford prepare food for a gala evening at gala evening at Broxwood Court.

Fahima tells me her older two children are happily settled at school in Hereford: “My daughter says she doesn’t want to go back to Afghanistan.”

Sadly, as a girl under Taliban rule, she would be banned from going to school there.

Fahima was a midwife in Kabul until she married and would like to practise again in England.

“But first my English must get better.”

She studies with City of Sanctuary member Clare Victor and rides her bike to college for lessons every week.

New opportunities

Last summer, along with Afghan friends and their children, she learned to swim in the private pool at Broxwood Court.

It was a great freedom for the women, whose culture would not allow them to be seen in a public pool, and Fahima’s face lights up when I ask her about it: “It was fun,” she laughs.

Her next ambition is to learn to drive and she is preparing for her theory test. Most of the Afghan men have already got their licences thanks in part to Major General Arthur Denaro and fellow City of Sanctuary members.

“It was very important to get the men driving so they could find jobs,” explains General Denaro when we meet at his Byford home.

“We couldn’t afford to pay for instructors or insure them to drive on public roads but two kind friends allowed us to use their private estates for lessons. I borrowed a couple of old cars, recruited some help and we did an hour or so twice a week.

"Jan Doran from City of Sanctuary was a great ally; our hair went rather more grey in the process but they eventually passed their tests.”

We are talking in his home office looking out over pasture greening up nicely.

“I felt a particular affinity for the Afghans because they had suffered as a result of our shameful withdrawal from their country. My sons, daughter and sons-in-law had all served in the military in Afghanistan, lost friends and seen fellow soldiers badly injured, so were feeling terrible about it too.”

General Denaro and his wife Maggi put on a picnic for the families twice a year.

“The local school headmaster provides a minibus to pick them up; the men sit under one tree, the women and children under another. We give them rides in the donkey cart; we even got one of the women riding a pony.”

Jan Doran tells me that two of the women have now got driving licences and three more are having lessons funded by City of Sanctuary with support from charities such as the Mothers Union, Rathbone Moral Aid, the Inchrye Trust and E.P. Bulmer.

Several more Afghan families are expected in Hereford any day and the charity has plans to expand services to include exercise classes and sessions on health and family planning.

Gala event

Meanwhile, volunteers Jan Coppinger and Di Hemming were gearing up for the big day at Broxwood.

Afghan women in Hereford prepare food for a gala evening at gala evening at Broxwood Court.

“The women will serve the food and chat to guests,” says Di.

“When we started the pop-ups they were very shy but they are used to it now. It all helps to get them work ready. They are so much more confident and their husbands are really supportive.”

I ask Fahima how she feels about meeting guests. She smiles: “I like it. All people are friendly.”

Vicki Murray is chair of Hereford City of Sanctuary. she says: “We run on a shoestring and a great deal of goodwill, and we are hoping that proceeds from the event at Broxwood will enable us to do much more for our resettled community.

"None of them would have chosen to leave home and family for an uncertain future in a foreign land and it behoves us to do all we can to help them thrive and flourish in the safe haven of our county. We are very grateful to Mike and Annie Allen for allowing us to hold the gala evening in the gardens of their beautiful home.”