Speaking out at Speaker's House

Tony Samuel is Freedom from Torture's Director of Fundraising and Marketing, making sure we raise the funds for our vital work with torture survivors. Here he reflects on the vital part played by Refugee Week in keeping refugees and their supporters positive:

Refugee Week is a unique opportunity to discover and celebrate the contributions of refugees in the UK. Through artistic, cultural and educational events, the week-long celebration embraces the positive attributes refugees offer all over the UK.

Refugee Week 2014 is focusing on celebrating children and young people. As part of the celebrations this year their appointed Young Ambassadors – all young refugees - are spreading the word about the contribution of refugees in the UK and we have been working closely with them to support their great work on the social media especially beloved by young people – see our Hijacked Twitter event elsewhere on this website.

This week refugees and their supporters met to start the celebrations in the State Rooms of the Speaker's House at the Houses of Parliament. Our host at the event was Sarah Teather MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Refugees.

Speeches from the Young Ambassadors were very uplifting: for example Gulwali, a young refugee from Afghanistan who told us about his struggles and successes in integrating into UK life, the positive learning and skills he'd derived from the process and how he would like to be able to use those to make a difference in Afghanistan one day.

For me the event was a moment to reflect on the shared paths of refugees and lawmakers in the UK. The Speaker is the Speaker of the 'House of Commons' – not a place for the nobility, but for those elected by the common people of the UK to take their seats. Our current Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP was himself the grandson of Romanian immigrants. The leader of the Opposition Rt. Hon, Ed Milliband MP is the son of Polish refugees.

Across all walks of life refugees make their mark. At Freedom from Torture we know that some of the strongest, most able members of society start their lives in the UK in exceptionally challenging circumstances.

To be a refugee often denotes a long period of financial insecurity, deprivation, and insecure housing. To be a survivor of torture is the cruelest additional burden. Survivors and their families can take many years to overcome the psychological and physical damage, inflicted by torture, an often lonely experience as you will find out if your follow our mystery Tweeter this week.

And at times the public debate on newcomers to the UK is pessimistic and less than welcoming.

This is why it is so important for refugees and supporters to keep coming together and remembering our positive achievements along the way with celebrations like Refugee Week. Please join us and the Refugee Week Young Ambassadors on Twitter and celebrate your own support for refugees with our Mystery Tweeter.