My name is Ahmed Taghdi. I'm from Libya. You know the situation in Libya has changed since the uprising in 2011. There was no option other than leaving the country for the sake of my children. I started my new life here in 2016. The first thing I had to do was look for a house, schools for the children, the basic things. I came across RETAS when a friend of mine needed help with interpretation, and when I learnt about the support that they offer for asylum seekers and refugees, I decided to volunteer here.
Back home, in Libya, volunteering is in our DNA. It's in our blood. It's something that has been passed down to me from my grandfather and my father. We supported needy people through charitable activities like digging wells for access to water. So, you know, volunteering and supporting people is not new to me. When you are new, you need support, you need help.
I now work as a Project Coordinator for RETAS' Welcome to Leeds Project. The main aim of the project is to support new asylum seekers, help them engage with the community, volunteer and prevent social isolation. You know decisions from the Home Office take such a long time. The vast majority of asylum seekers are accommodated in hotels – 98% of them are in hotels, and 2% in private houses. I know some people who have been waiting for a decision for more than 2 years.
Last year the guys managed to plant more than 3,500 trees. They cleared 22kg of rubbish from Scarborough beach. If you bring in workers to plant 3,500 trees and they volunteer 2,900 hours, and you pay them £11 an hour, calculate and see how much it would come to. It's something like £30,000. So it's a big job.
What really inspires me is what these guys give back to the city. Imagine living in a hotel for 2 years waiting for a decision, you're disappointed and you don't know what to do. These guys don't have money, they're only given £7 a week, and they don't have the right to work, and they come, they wake up in the morning, and they join you. They plant trees. And they end up planting 3,500 trees.
