Day 4 - Rest Day - Leicester

Today was our “resting day” but we were invited to meet the Lord Mayor of Leicester Cllr Manjula Sood. She is the first Asian female Lord Mayor in the UK. It was a great honour to meet her. She wished us all the best on our campaign and she promised to support us in any way that she could.

Priya Thamotheram, the head of the Highfield Youth Centre came to meet us there and took us to visit the Refugee Asylum Seeker’s Advice Project and Refugee Equality Centre to meet up with the staff there. They wanted to understand more about the whole idea of our campaign. Emmanuel explained what the DAI is all about and they promised to support us as well.

Mr Priya took us out to lunch where we enjoyed the food very much.

We then went to Highfields Youth Centre where My Priya works. When we got there, he gave us a tour of his building. The centre hosts lots of different activities and includes a gym, a music studio, computer rooms, a games room, a library, a fashion studio, a craft room, technology studio, a graphic digital arts studio a prayer room, an indoor basketball arena, a cafeteria and lots more!!! Mr Priya has been working there since 1981!!!

We then met the staff and some young children playing in the indoor basketball court, kicking balls and playing around. He told the young children about us and asked us some interesting questions! One of them asked us whether we had walked all the way from Africa to Highfields Center! That made us laugh! Also, “how often do children in Africa eat each day?” And “are you excited to meet the Prime Minister?”

We then went to a room to meet with some teenagers. Myself, Tafi and Emmanuel each spoke in turn about our experiences in Africa and how and why we fled our countries. They teenagers were all fascinated by our stories and asked us some very good questions. Many of them said that they had seen our website and read our blog! At the end, we took a photo and made a list of all their names.

During the various meetings during the day many people offered to join us tomorrow morning for the start of our walk to Northampton. This will mean a 5:30am start to all those who come, to whom we are very grateful.

Our thanks especially go out to Priya who arrange a fantastic well organised trip. We would also like to thank Martin, Chris and Valerie for dropping us off and picking us up.

(Written by Khumbula Dube)