N.E.S.T (North East Solidarity and Teaching) is a volunteer organisation started by Newcastle University students Bridget Stratford and Ala’a Otain. It provides teaching to refugees and asylum seekers of all ages, six days a week, covering topics ranging from art classes to English lessons. I spoke to them about what they do, and why they do it.
Student High Street: Take me back to the beginning: what encouraged you to start N.E.S.T?
Bridget: Phil Hay (who is the volunteer co-ordinator at Go Volunteer at Newcastle SU) set up a project so students could go and support refugees who were settling in the city and called it the Homework Club. It ran for maybe 8 weeks, and myself and Ala’a volunteered in that project – we were there from the start. Phil said that if we wanted we could take on the project and become project leaders and do with it what we wanted. From there we started growing it, and it became N.E.S.T
How do you manage to fit N.E.S.T around your studies? I even heard that you both took on Master’s degrees to stay here longer.
Ala’a: That is a true story. That’s why we’re doing our Master’s’.
Bridget: It’s been hard to balance everything; it’s very time consuming. It started off maybe ten hours a week doing N.E.S.T, now it’s probably between 20 and 35 hours a week. So we get less sleep, but it’s completely worth it.
How are you managing to fund the project and the resources it requires?
Bridget: Go Volunteer have been hugely important, we get grants through them which have been fundamental to setting up ‘Beyond Barriers’, our online platform. We did a lot of resource donation collecting at the start when we didn’t have enough funding. We used Facebook groups to gain donations. Then, we went to schools and picked up exercise books that they weren’t using, and we were given books from libraries that were closing down. Since then we’ve managed to secure more funding, and we’re looking forward to putting that to use and upgrading the resources that we’re using, to hopefully progress our teaching.
Where did the idea for the classes come from, is that quite new?
Bridget: A lot of what we do is focused around providing a tailored ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programme to the individuals who come to learn with us, but we also want to add in holistic welfare and community integration into what we’re doing. So, we developed the idea of having a creative outlet for people and turned it into a class. It also gives volunteers another way they can help. A lot of what we’ve tried to do is take student’s talents and passions and help them to use that to help other people. It’s become one of our most popular volunteer sessions. N.E.S.T Create is growing quickly.
Did you struggle with anything when you first started the project? How did you overcome those things?
Bridget: Ala’a and I had never done this before, so everything was a learning process. We would work out where we wanted to go and what would be in the way and try to overcome that, but I think we’ve used the help of our volunteers - we have such talented people on the project. Far more talented than Ala’a and I, and it’s just been our job to bring everyone together. All our volunteers have stepped up hugely and made it possible.
What do you need the most from the public?
Ala’a: We definitely do need more volunteers because no matter how many we seem to have, there’s always more learners coming. We keep getting around 10 more learners each week.
What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about N.E.S.T?
Bridget: No matter who you are, you can make a difference.
https://n-e-s-t.org/
Click here to see a day at the project.
Email n.e.s.t@outlook.com for more information.
