Migrant Artists Mutual Aid

MaMa started meeting weekly on Wednesdays in May 2013. There are a lot of challenges and joys of a weekly meeting. The biggest challenge to migrant mutual aid campaigning groups is how we deal with dispersal and privatisation, the policy of the Home Office to scatter people about so they don’t form connections and community. Privatisation because for any group to gather the costs of covering local bus travel is simply staggering. Before we ran out of our transport budget we were spending between 60-70 pounds a week just for bus fares.

Nobody is sure what to do. Dispersal is a strategy that works. While running 5k with the Santa Dash is not really going to solve the problem of Migrant Mothers being dispersed, it will help keep us ticking along while we try and come up with a brilliant idea to deal with really expensive bus travel.

Hey friends and supporters!

Mama members are planning to take part in the Santa Dash, which takes place on the 7th December, and to raise some much-needed funds for our members to be able to attend our meetings and up-lifting choir practices! Recently we have been very quiet, though not inactive, with training for immigration raids on local public transport which have become more frequent in recent months all over the UK. We are also supporting Naome’s daughter to help her mum get back on her feet after her removal to Zimbabwe.

Some of you have already shown an interest in joining the run. It is still possible to sign up at the lower fee of £22 till Saturday at

http://www.btrliverpool.com/#!santa-dash-enter/cclx

If you can’t make it to the run but would like to support us Hanna has set up a funding page for her recent marathon, you can donate online there!
http://gogetfunding.com/project/hana-s-reluctant-marathon-loch-ness-sept-28th

Migrant Artists Mutual Aid and V Day Liverpool present a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues.

“Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving. . . it is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic,a performance and a balm and a benediction.” – Variety

£10 / £8 concessions

All proceeds go towards Migrant Artists Mutual Aid (MaMa), supporting women and children seeking sanctuary in the UK from gender based persecution including domestic violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

**Also featuring the debut public performance of the MaMa choir! Not to be missed!!*

PERFORMANCE DATES AND TICKET DETAILS:

1) FRIDAY 14 FEBRUARY, 7.30PM (VALENTINE’S DAY!)

At The Capstone Theatre
Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus, 17 Shaw St, Liverpool L6 1HP
www.thecapstonetheatre.com
Tickets from TicketQuarter, Merseytravel Centre, Queen Square, Liverpool L1 1RG or tel 0844 8000 410

2 )SATURDAY 8 MARCH, 7PM (INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!)

At Ullet Rd Unitarian Church
Ullet Rd, Liverpool L17 2AA
www.ulletroadchurch.org.uk
Tickets from News from Nowhere or on the door

Please join Migrant Artists Mutual Aid in an event to raise much-needed money for our crisis fund and to mark International Human Rights Day – with food, music, games, a soul to sole shoe auction, solidarity and liberation song disco

Doors open from 4pm with snacks available

Lovely international food from 5pm, cooked together by MaMa members

A band of young drummers, some live music and presentations about human rights and the international convention on the rights of the child

MaMa has expanded in the last year and it would be great to come and meet some of our newest members

It would be really helpful if people can RSVP and if possible buy tickets from us beforehand

Suggested donation:
Adult: £10
2 adults and kids: £20
Unwaged: in kind donation of time / auction item / vegan dried food / anything you can

We are so excited to be hosting a NCADC training in Liverpool, it is going to be at the Florrie.
NCADC campaigning training, Liverpool

Wednesday 11 December 2013

10am to 4pm

The Florence Institute Trust Limited
377 Mill Street, Liverpool
L8 4RF

This training, hosted by Migrant Artists’ Mutual Aid, is open to all but booking is essential.

If you would like to book a place, please email lisa@ncadc.org.uk

The training is free, but a donation towards lunch from waged participants is requested.

NCADC training across the UK

Next up on our training tour of the UK is Liverpool! Throughout 2012 and 2013, NCADC has been visiting local groups already involved in campaigning, or wanting to find out more. We have been running workshops on understanding the asylum/immigration status and campaigning for the right to remain, in Huddersfield, Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, Glasgow, Belfast and coming up before the end of the year we’ll be travelling to Newcastle, Liverpool and Nottingham. In the new year, we’ll be making our way to Leicester.

If you’ve missed us, don’t worry, we’ll be coming back! If you’re interested in NCADC coming to deliver training to your group/network, please get in touch.

Our training in Newcastle on 16 November is already fully booked. We are now taking bookings for our training in Liverpool on Wednesday 11 December.

Toolkit training

Through interactive exercises, discussion, knowledge-sharing and case-studies participants will come away knowing more about:

the asylum and immigration system,
the problems individuals face going through the system
what can be done to support individuals applying for asylum or immigration status
what ‘campaigning’ means
how activists and local groups can work together to support individuals in their communities
The training is based on the NCADC Campaigning Toolkit: a comprehensive printed and online resource for people fighting for justice in their asylum or immigration case, and the groups working to support them.

With the support of edgefund we have launched our Tuesday Campaigning group. Vegan/Halal lunch, support with launching right to remain/anti-deportation campaigns, 12:30-2:30. This is modeled after the brilliant group run by WAST in Manchester, it is women only but if there is an interested we are going to add additional meetings and times.

The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns just did a brilliant workshop at WAST in Manchester. WE are just about to launch a weekly support group for women seeking asylum who want to start public, community and political campaigns. We all want to share some of what we have learned in this journey. Below is the link the the guardian article about Fatoumata.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/nov/06/female-genital-mutilation-asylum-gambia

Thank you for your ongoing support. Despite all our best efforts, the UK Border Agency are still proceeding with the deportation of our good friend Fatoumata, who is seeking asylum in the UK to protect her British born daughter from Female Genital Mutilation.

I would be incredibly grateful if you could take 2 minutes to sign our on-line petition, which we are hoping to present to Theresa May as soon as possible as part of our campaign to prevent the deportation, and forward to any of your contacts who may be interested. Your signature will really make a difference, not just to my friend and her child’s lives, but to women everywhere seeking protection against gender-based crimes.

https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/home-secretary-theresa-may-mp-allow-fatoumata-sowe-to-stay-in-the-uk-protect-her-daughter-from-fgm#share

We have been asked to reflect on what accomplishments we are proud of and we thought we would share the sounds of a Tuesday in Liverpool.