A Celebration of Courage.

The Big Leaf Foundation invited me to join them for their celebration to mark National Refugee Week 2026 and what a joyful, vibrant, musical celebration it was!

Refugee Week is a large arts and cultural festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary in the UK. The theme for this year’s Refuge Week was “Courage” – a skill that was amply displayed by the extraordinary young people I met that evening. 

The Big Leaf Foundation seeks to help young refugees in Surrey to rebuild their lives after displacement from their home countries. It does so by providing a nurturing programme of activities, projects and events – for instance, the Big Leaf Foundation helps the young people to improve their English, prepare for GCSEs and other qualifications; and access local clubs to play sports, music, etc. These projects help to combat social isolation and assist the young people to build fulfilling new lives integrated into Surrey communities.

The celebration showed us what amazing effects the Big Leaf Foundation’s work has. The young people were quietly confident and had clearly established firm friendships within both the Big Leaf and the local communities. We were treated to an art exhibition of beautifully vivid felt bowls, which expressed each artist’s interpretation of the colour of “courage”.  This was followed by the most delicious Eritrean meal of injera – a fermented flatbread made from teff flour – topped with a variety of vegetable stews and a Big Band concert. Violins, drums, a keyboard, a trumpet and vocals performed a range of stirring folk songs embodying “courage” – one of the songs enjoyed its premier as it had only been composed by the band that afternoon.

It was a wonderfully uplifting evening which sent us all away with an extra spring in our step.

Vist the Big Leaf website at: https://www.bigleaffoundation.org.uk