Refugee Week 2011

Refugee Week is a national celebration of the contribution refugees and asylum seekers make and have made to our society. Writers' Centre Norwich always gets involved, and this year is no exception, follow the link for details on booking tickets for our event with Hisham Matar, Tahmima Anam, and Philo Ikonya.

What happens during the week?

Every year during Refugee Week hundreds of events are organised across the UK. In 2009, there were over 500 small and large events, ranging from big music festivals and art exhibitions to political debates, film screenings, conferences, school activities, sports and community events etc.

How can you get involved? Simple Acts is about inspiring people to use small, everyday actions to change perceptions of refugees. It consists of 20 actions that can be done by anyone and that encourage us to learn and do more with refugees. With every person who joins the campaign and does a small thing with and for refugees, we get a little closer to removing barriers between communities and to creating the kind of world we all want to live in.

Refugee Week believes that by encouraging lots of people to do these simple, seemingly insignificant acts – read a book, tell a story or share a dish – we can begin to make lasting changes to the world around us.

Find out more about Simple Acts here.

Watch the trailer for Courage: 60 Years of the UN Refugee Convention and a Simple Acts cartoon here. 

 

What does Refuge mean to you?

Simple Acts has a collection of videos from public figures defining the word refuge, we've collected a few here.

Writers' Centre Norwich Refugee Week 2011 event:

World Voices for Refugee Week with Hisham Matar, Tahmima Anam & Philo Ikonya.

Literary sensation Hisham Matar returns to Norwich to launch and read from his brilliant new novel Anatomy of a Disappearance in celebration of Refugee Week.

Hisham's In the Country of Men was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and translated into 22 languages. He will be joined by Tahmima Anam, author of the award winning A Golden Age who will read from her stunning new novel The Good Muslim and International Cities of Refuge writer Philo Ikonya in an evening of literary exploration that celebrates freedom of speech, great writing and Norwich’s status as England’s only City of Refuge.

Follow this link to book tickets!