The Messenger recently worked with the Council’s Adult and Community Learning Unit on an ESOL course with a difference. Here is some of the students’ writing.
Story:Amal
This course is called Writing for a Community Newspaper. In my class there are ten people. We are different nationalities but most of us are Somali. Kath, our teacher, is from Scotland but she has lived in Sheffield for about 20 years. I like this course; it is quite difficult for me but I think it is useful. First we met Lisa – she is the manager of the Burngreave Messenger.
She told us how the Messenger is working. We read a fantastic poem but it was very hard to read. We met the man who wrote the poem. His name is Rob Smith and he has been a writer since 1992. We were all amazed by him. He is a great man. I like this course and I hope to improve my English, especially writing and reading, and I am looking forward to getting a job in the future.
A sad story
Story: Nicky, Zahra,Anab and Khadija
Ali Aman is from Afghanistan. He has been here for five years. His asylum claim has been refused and the Home Office wants to send him back to Afghanistan. He had to work because he did not have any support from the government. He worked illegally as a builder and one day a big accident happened to him. He fell down from the top of the building and broke his spine in six places.
He was in hospital for six and half months. The hospital sent him a huge bill of about £95,000. He is applying for a fresh asylum claim and fortunately has a solicitor working on his case. A UNHCR paper dated May 2006 advised that physically disabled Afghans who cannot work or live on their own should not return unless they have family or community support.
At the moment he is pessimistic and we advised him to be optimistic because his health is improving every day. We hope he can stay in Sheffield.
