Britain’s East and South East Asian Network (besea.n)

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

We had yet another successful ESEA Heritage Month last September #ESEAHM2022, with over 80 events taking place across the country.

What are you currently working on?

This year we’re calling on you to tackle a problem that affects 3.1 million adults in the U.K. We have chosen to collaborate with @thehygienebank to raise awareness and combat the hygiene poverty. Lunar New Year is traditionally a time to spring clean and start the year afresh. It’s also possible to help others do the same by passing on any unused/new and in-date cleaning and personal grooming products. To donate, follow this link to find the locations of Boots branches nationwide that are accepting products. They are collected and sorted by specialist hubs, then eventually redistributed to those most in need.

Alongside a team of education expert, we have also created school resource packs designed for students from EYFS all the way through to KS5. These resources will help you teach culturally sensitive, engaging and thought-provoking lessons about Lunar New Year. You can access these resources here.

We are currently working with Protection Approaches to deliver Active Bystander Trainings across England and Wales, both online and in person.

How can we help/support you right now?

Support us by joining our LNY campaigns above, sharing our resources and participate in our trainings. Any donations are also appreciated for us to continue creating these resources for ESEA communities and beyond

Find us on Instagram.

besean.co.uk

Southeast and East Asian Centre

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

SEEAC started 5 new projects to support, empower and advocate for members of ESEA communities experiencing labour exploitation and trafficking, gender-based violence, identity-based hate as well as various impacts of immigration controls. 

What are you currently working on?

Continuing to expand our mental health support services for individuals and peer groups together with our partners.

How can we help/support you right now?

Work for us as our Partnership and Programme Development Manager. Please apply by 31 January 2023.

Find us on Instagram.

seeac.org.uk

Centre 151

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

2022 was a time of healing for the ESEA and wider community attending our centre. 

What are you currently working on?

Centre 151-VLC will continue to provide much needed community services to ensure no one is isolated. 

How can we help/support you right now?

Joining our events, volunteering and donating, all help us to continue to be a welcoming home for everyone.

Find us on Instagram.

centre151.com

Vietnamese Family Partnership

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

We had an incredible Autumn Festival back in September with over 1,000 attendees – our events are catering to more and more people every time which shows the support for what we do, and the demand for what we provide to bring our community together. We have grown our volunteer network to 100+ individuals who all help us to serve the community through events like these. Our VietSchool has expanded, with additional classes teaching Vietnamese to 200+ adults and children as well as launching an English language school for the community of Vietnamese native speakers, while our Advice and Support Centre has supported 380+ members of our community across a range of issues such as mental health, loneliness, family, education support and those affected by COVID-19.

What are you currently working on?

We’ve just had our Lunar New Year 2023 Year of the Cat celebration event on Sunday 15th January, which of course has been the big 'project’ we’ve been working towards lately, and we’ve had incredibly positive feedback from sponsors and attendees already. We’ve just been told there was an estimated 3,000+ people in attendance too! Now’s that it’s over, we will recalibrate and focus on strengthening our core services, before planning the next event, which is our Mid-Autumn Festival!

How can we help/support you right now?

Follow us on socials, attend our events and of course donate to the charity to help us continue our work serving the community via our Advice & Support Centre and our VietSchool, teaching both Vietnamese and English. We’re also always on the look out for volunteers, either long-term or event supporters for our Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival events, which is a great way to get involved. Everything we do is for the community, so it’s always great to come full circle and have them help us too!

Find us on Instagram.

vietfp.org

Crossing the Gain Line

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

At Crossing the Gain Line, we are proud to have seen tremendous success over the past year. Our rugby training groups have increased from two groups to four and our teams recently participated in their first tournament - with some children even winning their age division! 

Each month our food assistance program provides basic food such as rice, to more than 200 families. This allows them to spend spare money on fresh fruits and vegetables. As well as this ongoing project, each week online English lessons are provided by us to some of the older children that we coach. 

Our Vocational Training Support had its first result this year with 5 of our older players graduating from the Shwe Sa Bwe restaurant hospitality (11 months) course. Crossing the Gain Line was able to help them with onboarding costs, such as transport, lunch money etc. We look forward to our players entering the world of work with a qualification that is recognised in the hospitality industry throughout the world.

Big Wins

• Growing the rugby program to just over 200 kids

• Developing an online english program

• Sustaining the food assistance program to make monthly donations

• Playing in a tournament with international schools in Myanmar

• Getting our own playing kit for players

What are you currently working on?

We are currently working on growing our online english program. We would like to get more volunteer English teachers and help more young people develop their english. 

We would also like to participate in more tournaments.So we are working on making contacts with international schools and looking at a possible Thailand trip sometime in the next couple of years.

All our coaches are from Myanmar, and we are looking to improve their rugby and coaching knowledge by providing them opportunities for further education in the coaching field.

How can we help/support you right now? 

The donation that you made in 2022 helped us in expanding our rugby program to more children and a repeat donation would go a long way to us maintaining and growing this program.

We need more online English teachers who can commit to volunteering one hour per week and we need more tablet computers for our children to access these teachers. So any appeal you can make to secure a surplus tablet or teacher would be greatly appreciated.


Find us on Instagram.

crossingthegainline.org

London Chinese Community Centre

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

We are fortunate enough to receive sufficient fundings to expand our Information & Advice services to the wider ESEA community.  We managed to finally celebrate 40th anniversary which should have happened two years ago.

What are you currently working on?

Organising events for the Lunar new year, also making arrangements to participate in the Trafalgar Square events.

How can we help/support you right now? 

Spread the words for us,  put us in contact with the wider ESEA community who may benefit from the services and cultural events we provide.


Find us on Instagram.

ccc.org.uk

ESA Scotland

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022?

Providing a safe space to encourage vulnerable ESEA migrant women to participate in activities such as body movement sessions, advice clinic, and aerial skills sessions. We are also one of the Casework organisations and consortium partners of 'On Your Side'. We provide casework support to ESEA's who have experienced discrimination, hate and racism.

What are you currently working on?

'On Your Side' Casework support, We will be facilitating support group wellbeing sessions and activities for POC self identifying women in Human Rights organising in Scotland starting February 2023. In March 2023, we will start a 3 year long project (partnered with Kanlungan and SEEAC) that aims to support ESEA migrant self identifying women in activism and community organising, supporting them to organise and mobilise by equipping participants with additional skills and knowledge needed to be affective campaigners (We will provide confidential support group sessions to help them navigate the structures of social justice seeking in the UK.)

How can we help/support you right now? 

Thank you so much for asking! Maybe you could help spread awareness of our organisation and sessions. We will send out materials and promo information once we have produced them.

Find us on Instagram.

esascotland.org

Ways of Being Together

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022? 

Ways of Being Together has been gathering again since June 2022. 

Last November 50 people with multiple heritages and backgrounds came together for a new performance called How Shall We Begin Again? The 16 hour live installation was commissioned by Neurolive and notably a strong ESEA presence.

Extraordinary, celebratory and beautiful.

Kate Hall from Jumped Up Theatre described the performance :

"Trust has been established, a safe space to ask the questions, and not know the answers, but to take a step on a journey of curiosity.  Sometimes we are alone in this thinking, sometimes we are making this enquiry with others.  Sometimes the music is loud and dominant, sometimes silence hangs heavy - and is filled, or not, with words, or movement.  It takes bravery, trust, but also a hunger for change, knowledge, new voices and new stories, and taking up of space. What is wrapped round this?  Very little. A DJ choosing tracks, which seem to pick up where the silence or words lead, or cannot go.  Or does the dance conjure up that music? There is no hiding.  There is only room for honesty. The last few minutes of each section has both a sense of urgency - “I haven’t quite finished yet” and impatience - “I need to handover this conversation.” We are changed by the act of sharing, of witnessing, and being witnessed. The next “speaker” comes on - providing relief, permission, accepting the gift of their predecessors knowledge, experience and discoveries. What does movement reveal, or release?  What does taking up space do to the body, to the mind, to how we move through our futures? Sometimes (often) words fail, action takes over, comforts, releases, protects, bridges.  Sometimes we don’t have to speak, the work of being in the body is more than enough, is so full of curiosity and belief that There is no need, to speak. Dance this dangerous, this bold, cuts to the humanity in us all."

What are you currently working on?

Right now there is a dream for an ESEA art festival in Wales. This would be an absolute first and it will definitely take some time yet the seeds have been planted and new networks of Wales’ ESEA art makers and performers have been gathering. Currently it's mostly on zoom and we hope more in person events will begin to take place soon.

How can we help/support you right now? 

We understand how difficult it is for artists to stay afloat amid the cost of living crisis. Many artists are questioning whether they should even remain artists at this time so it feels like a constant attention to provide small oases of creativity AND be able to contribute expenses or any real financial stability. 

With the big dream being an ESEA art festival in Wales. Support to create a sustained joining together of Wales’ ESEA artists and performers would be a step towards the dream.

Find us on Instagram.

jofong.com

Kanlungan Filipino Consortium

What are some of your wins since LNY 2022?

Kanlungan has provided 120 beneficiaries with 1-2-1 befriending and group counselling. Our beneficiaries include women who have experienced gender violence, domestic violence and are new single mothers. We have also developed projects and services supporting the LGBTQ+ community that included workshops that used art and conversation to explore themes around shame, provide educational information and signposting around STD's and HIV and to create a safe space for ESEA LGBTQ+ community in conjunction with our Consortium members. Wins include through our immigration advice and support in conjunction with Seraphus law firm, four of our beneficiaries have received indefinite leave to remain. Finally, sharing a recent writing and podcast workshop that domestic workers collaborated with Galdem - do check it out: https://gal-dem.com/our-place-is-here/. 

How can we support you right now?

Through your generous support, donations (and volunteering should you be interested in), we can continue our work supporting the most vulnerable groups within our community with immigration support, mental health advice and providing vital goods such as food and toiletries to vulnerably housed women who have experienced domestic abuse.

Find us on Instagram.

kanlungan.org.uk