Catherine, from Manchester, volunteers with Refugees at Home.
I’ve been a Volunteer Host since 2021. I approached Refugees at Home as they were the obvious organisation to turn to – as they help refugees find short term accommodation. I actually heard about them because Gary Lineker mentioned something about offering his own home through them and the Refugees at Home name just sort of stuck! Social media really helps to spread the word about this kind of thing.
I got involved because of two things really; I work with refugees already, so I know there is a need for help. Also, we have a family home, and our three sons have sort of left home – they aren’t quite settled yet – and still come home. This means we aren’t ready to downsize just yet, and we have these spare rooms just sitting empty.
Before we started hosting, a friend came to stay with us for six months as an emergency, and we found it such a positive experience we thought we would look to find some way to provide the rooms on a short term basis to someone who needed them.
I think connecting with someone in the way that hosting allows you to has been the best thing. In my working life, I connect with refugees and asylum seekers on a professional level. However, hosting is a completely different experience. I’ve been able to connect in such a different way with the people I hosted; talking about football to people who love football and that being all our conversation is about has been joyful.
I would absolutely recommend hosting through Refugees at Home! When we had our Home Visit, we had a really honest conversation with the Home Visitor, and got some brilliant advice from the start, from accepting that guests might not just slip into your family, that you are going to have to be clear on your house rules. I really appreciate that we get the information you have about the guest up front and we can decide whether they feel like a good fit for what we can offer. The support I’ve received from Refugees at Home is great – there’s always someone I can speak to, and knowing that someone will check in with us has been a comfort too. Knowing that someone is checking in with our guest too, that they are given a chance to say things to Refugees at Home or the referrer that can be helpful to our hosting has been so helpful.
We hosted one guest, a young man who was originally from Iran. He wants to become a professional wrestler, and so he went to training every single night; and he so wanted to be in Manchester as this is where the British Wrestling team are based. He is so serious about entering the sport. We are sports fans, but didn’t know anything about wrestling before he stayed with us. It was wonderful to talk to him and learn from him about the wrestling world, something he is so passionate about. It’s something that really helped us to form a bond. It was a joy to see his positivity, energy and having joy in his life.