Louise's Story: "find the courage, resilience, tenacity and strength of character"

Helpless, angry, embarrassed are just some of the ways I would describe my feelings as I watched violence and intimidation play out on the streets of East Belfast last week.

As someone who works in the community you feel like you should have an answer or a suitable response but I just didn’t.

Meanwhile Anaka and other groups mobilised in a totally inspiring way inviting those, like me, desperate to do something into a community that was not going to just let this happen around them.  

I spent part of a morning delivering breakfasts to a local hotel that was providing temporary shelter for some people who had been made to feel really unsafe in their homes.  

I met a lovely young woman from Somalia who asked if I could take her back to her room in a shared house to get some things. She told me she had been in Northern Ireland for about 10 months and had been going to English classes  to learn - her English was amazing!!! In those couple of hours I spent with her - she invited me into her home, shared some of her story with me and showed a level of gratitude for what was a trivial offering on my side - it was an extremely humbling experience and I have reflected many times since on the courage, resilience, tenacity and strength of character that an asylum seeker has to tap into to keep surviving.  

I would fall very far short if the circumstances were reversed.  

As I left her back at her hotel, she smiled, thanked me, we hugged awkwardly and she went back inside.  I’m still reflecting on how she gave me far more than what I gave her that day - she allowed me to help her, she shared her story and I left feeling that at least I had done something.  

What I owe her now is to find the courage, resilience, tenacity and strength of character in me to use my voice and actions to counter the dangerous narratives in our communities that are fuelling this hatred.

Louise works at Larder>East.