Swansea Central Library celebrated World Refugee Day, June 20th, with an afternoon of activities on the Refugee Week 2023 theme of Compassion.

In one area of the library, Management Committee member and long-term SCoS volunteer, Funmi, lead a fun session for mothers and toddlers, singing nursery rhymes in the language of Yoruba. We found out that “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” is in other languages as well as English and Welsh! At another library table seed planting, with Forest School, entertained a group of children. For older children, there was a chance to make playdough models and make a short animation film which was a great creative activity by Swansea M.A.D. Stories were told in Welsh, English and Ukrainian with the children being thoroughly entertained.

On a thoughtful note, there was a very powerful poetry reading by an asylum seeker whose poetry shed light on the many experiences of sanctuary seekers including what it is like for a family to live for months in a hotel room.

At the end of the event, some competition winners went home happily, having won books in different languages, written and illustrated by the brilliant Helen and Thomas Docherty.

Within the Exhibition area was a colourful display of textile art provided by Dr Nilufar Ahmed as part of the Helping Hands project and bags created by the Swansea Asylum Seekers Support Women’s group.