There’s a whole host of celebratory events taking place across Kirklees to mark Refugee Week this month.
Refugee week – from 17-23 June – is a UK-wide programme of educational, informative and celebratory events to mark the many ways refugees have enriched our culture and communities for generations.
On 18 June there’s a ‘Football For All’ competition at the Leeds Road Complex, Huddersfield which will bring people together from the local community including refugees and asylum seekers.
There will also be a ‘Great Conversation Community Event’ in Batley on 20 June where people can talk about their migration or family members migrating to the UK.
‘A Celebration of Us’ will be bringing people together in the community through music, dance and poetry on 22 June at St Peter’s Church, Byram Street, Huddersfield.
There will also be a pop-up restaurant on 28 June at Paddock Village Hall in Huddersfield.
The Leader of Kirklees Council, Councillor Shabir Pandor said, “Refugee Week celebrates the contribution of varied skills and experiences that refugees bring with them to the UK.
The week is packed with some fantastic events happening across Kirklees where people can come together and learn from each other. These cohesion and integration events promote a better understanding of why people seek sanctuary.”
To see a full list of the celebratory events taking place across Kirklees visit https://bit.ly/2wOsELx
Here is a selection of refugees whose skills, hopes and dreams made a massive contribution across the world:
- Rita Ora – Came to the UK as a baby from Kosovo
- Freddie Mercury – Came to the UK from Zanzibar in 1964
- Bob Marley – Fled Jamaica to Miami after being shot during political violence
- Sir Montague Burton – Founded Burton retail, refugee from Lithuania
- Albert Einstein – fled Germany and eventually settled in the USA
- Ben Elton – Comedian, grandson of a Czechoslovakian refugee
- Rachel Weisz – Actress, both parents are Jewish refugees
- Billy Wilder – Film director and writer, Jewish refugee
- Gloria Estefan – Cuban born musician fled to Miami during the revolution
