Host of activities will mark Refugee Week at DMU

A community café, craft activities and learning a new skill are just some of the activities on offer this week for refugees and migrant families who are making their home in the city.

De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is taking part in Refugee Week, the UK’s largest festival celebrating the contribution of refugees. It also aims to promote understanding about why people seek sanctuary and bust myths.


The university is working with partner organisations to run events for refugees who have made their home in Leicester and raise awareness of the support DMU offers through its #DMUlocal programme.

#DMUlocal is working with organisations such as After18, which provides study support for unaccompanied children, the Red Cross, Action Homeless and City of Sanctuary on the week of events.

Students and staff will be organising events and welcoming families and young people to campus for craft and music events, as well as a big community lunch organised with DMU Prayer Room.

Mark Charlton, Head of Public Engagement at DMU, said: “Leicester has always enjoyed a reputation as a diverse and welcoming city and we aim to carry on this message through our work with refugee families at #DMUlocal.

“We’re looking forward to meeting and talking with as many people as possible to our events next week, and giving them a warm welcome.”

On-campus events include:

•    IT skills classes, Tuesday 10am to noon

•   Speed lectures from academics working with refugees, 5pm to 7pm

•    Stories and poems from refugees on Wednesday 20 June, noon to 2pm

•    Banner making workshop, June 20, 3pm to 5pm

•    Big community lunch, 1pm to 3pm, Thursday June 21

•    Music workshop, 12 to 2pm, Friday June 22

•    Community café, Saray Mangal restaurant, Leicester, 11am to 1pm.

Throughout the week, DMU MA Photography student Pat Nimmo will have an exhibition at Friar’s Mill which tell the stories of refugees and asylum seekers. It will be on from 1pm to 4pm Monday to Friday. DMU students have also supporting Leicester Cathedral's major new art exhibition Suspended, which opens this week. The artwork, by Arabella Dorman, is composed of hundreds of items of clothing discarded by refugees upon their arrival on the island of Lesbos.




If you would like more information about events at DMU, or want to volunteer support please email Debbie Tinsley at #DMUlocal.