A desire for justice

LOTS of people talk about ‘doing something’ to help refugees – but some people actually take it a step further.

Val Brown lives in Glasgow with her family and works for Christian Aid. She’s also a member of the World Mission Council of the Church of Scotland. Last year she and her family decided to offer a room to Omar, a refugee from Syria.

“It’s hard to remember exactly how I heard about the project,” she says.

“I think it was through a Positive Action in Housing e-mail and we had spoken about it as a family and come to the conclusion that ‘it would be a good thing to do’ but then never did anything about it. As the refugee crisis deepened, we were hearing the stories from our partner churches and Christian Aid partners across the globe, and getting a sense of what the people in Syria were facing we felt that we could offer a room in our home to someone who needed it, really on the premise that if the boot was on the other foot, we would hope someone would offer us a room in their home.”

As a mother of two children, it was a decision that everyone in the family had to make together.

Val was brought up in Shawlands, Glasgow and was involved from a young age through Sunday School and Brownies at South Shawlands Church.

“I spent a lot of happy years in South Shawlands Church, however, when we moved house up to Clarkston we decided to join Williamwood Church so that the children could go to Sunday School and youth organisations alongside their school friends. We really enjoy being part of the worshipping life at Williamwood, it’s a very active and friendly congregation. Alan is still a BB officer down in Shawlands so we keep good links there and stay in touch with the many friends we have.”

Val has been interested in working with people and following her faith since she was young.

“One Sunday the Rev Lily McKinnon, who was then minister at South Shawlands, did a service on Third World debt. She brought a helium balloon into the sanctuary and just let it go, explaining it would be up there for weeks and every time we saw it we were to remember the astronomical and unpayable debt that burdened some of the world’s poorest countries. Christian Aid was name-checked at that service and from that point I wanted to be involved in the work that they were doing and justice became something that was very important to me. I began volunteering with Christian Aid when I was at university where I studied history and social geography. When I was coming to the end of my course I was interested in their gap year, however I knew that the youth work post was soon going to be available and I was fortunate enough to get that. From there I moved to my current role supporting the Scottish Churches nationally and locally in 2009.

“I joined the World Mission Council about six years ago and was asked to go onto the Middle East Committee – I had a very basic knowledge of that part of the world so went into the committee very much a novice.

However, I got the chance to visit Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and to see the work of our partners there and meet some of the Christian community in both Israel and the West Bank. I really began to get a sense of what goes on there, how people live and how hard people in different communities are working to bring about a just peace for all people who call that land home. It was truly inspiring and some of the work that Christian Aid partners and Church of Scotland partners do on a day-to-day basis is really living out the most radical aspects of our faith.

“Over the years I have been able to visit a few times, meet more partner organisations and our own mission partners in the region and learn more about that complex situation and how we can, in some small way, contribute to building a just peace and investing in projects which support both Israelis and Palestinians.

“If you ever get the chance to go on one of the World Mission Council trips I would highly recommend it as you will gain an understanding of something of that complex reality through meeting the people who live there. It is an enriching experience and doing it with leaders who know the people means that it is not at all the experience a tourist would get.

Val has been interested in working with people and following her faith since she was young. One Sunday the Rev Lily McKinnon, who was then minister at South Shawlands, did a service on Third World debt. She brought a helium balloon into the sanctuary and just let it go, explaining it would be up there for weeks and every time we saw it we were to remember the astronomical and unpayable debt that burdened some of the world’s poorest countries.

“The work of the whole council excites me and as vice-convener I get a chance to glimpse a bit more of the work we do around the world through our partnerships with churches. Listening to our partners and understanding where they are and what they are working on enables us to grow and learn here in Scotland as well. Listening to our partners also poses challenges to us. For example, recently, we asked our partner churches what the main issues were that they faced, and two of the top answers were conflict and climate change. If we take seriously the claim that we are all part of the one body, and that if one part suffers then we all suffer, then it is not enough for us to hear about issues. There is an obligation on us to act, and that doesn’t only mean financial action. Christian Aid partners from around the world have been working on climate change because they have had to, increasingly erratic weather is making it harder and harder for people to make a living from the land. Extreme weather is forcing people off their land as they are no longer able to make it productive. Christian Aid partners are supporting people to adapt to this new reality: giving saline resistant seeds in Bangladesh; providing accurate weather forecasts at planting time in Kenya; and through our Guild project, providing solar ovens to communities in the Bolivian Amazon so that people can cook well even when the firewood is soaking wet.

“Last year’s World Mission Council report to the General Assembly was entitled ‘Care for Creation’, where we focused on climate change and the impact it was having on our partner churches and their congregation members, but also looked more broadly at how we care for each other and the work partner churches do to be a voice for peace and justice and the work they do to provide essential services to some of our poorest sisters and brothers.

“On the back of that report we organised a climate consultation here in Scotland alongside the Church of Scotland Guild, the Church and Society Council and Christian Aid, inviting partners from the Christian Aid and the world church to meet with church leaders, congregations, MSPs and civil society organisations to share their experiences and ask that we take appropriate actions here to safeguard the future of our global partners by investing in low carbon technology and being mindful of how our actions here in how we consume, travel, heat our building etc impact upon the livelihoods of others.

“This is an area that we are passionate about as a family, and continue to wrestle with as we try and reduce our carbon footprint. We have solar panels on the house and I always feel if you can just about cover your electricity needs from solar in sunny, Glasgow, then solar for so many others is the way to go!”

Working for Christian Aid has also had a significant impact on Val’s life and her faith journey.

“I’ve learned a massive amount being with Christian Aid,” she says. “I have been privileged to work alongside amazing people, incredible theologians and to get the opportunity to worship, not only across the breadth of churches in Scotland, but also to experience Church services in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. These experiences have enabled me to be opened up to different theologies, lived experiences and faith contexts that I would otherwise never even have glimpsed and it has shaped my faith and my understanding of God. Meeting people across the world living in situations of absolute poverty and injustice whose faith is so strong and whose belief that justice will prevail is profoundly moving. In each context I have been in, both in Scotland and overseas, people’s understanding of the nature of God is different and their style of worship and the language they use is different. It has also embedded justice and that gospel bias to the poor at the heart of my faith.”

It was that desire for justice and feeling called to action that first made Val consider the Room for a Refugees project.

Val Brown(left) celebrating Christian Aid’s 70th anniversary

Room for Refugees was pioneered by Positive Action in Housing in 2003. It is the longest running refugee hosting scheme run by a registered charity in the UK or Western Europe.

“The registration process was straightforward and we did it online but then once we had registered we heard nothing for a good couple of months and then, when we were contacted and asked to host someone, it all happened very quickly so we didn’t have much time to do more than just get the spare room made up.

"The children were a bit anxious about someone coming to stay in the house, but understood why we were doing it and were happy enough from that point of view. “We were asked to host a young man from Syria – Omar – and it was a good experience – he was very easy company, and it was a mix of us kind of doing our own thing and other nights eating together and sitting chatting or watching the football.

“Initially Omar came over with someone from Room for Refugees and we just sat and chatted over a cup of tea for an hour and then the case-worker left us to it. It was quite strange to move from the dynamic of host to that of having a lodger. For the first few days I was more in entertaining mode as I would do with a Christian Aid partner, but after a day or so it slipped more into a relationship of co-existence where we had separate plans but often shared food and company, but that it wasn’t expected and we were free to have our own space if desired.

“Our main concern was the impact it would have on the kids – they have been fortunate enough to meet many people from around the world and we have hosted Christian Aid partners, but having someone living with us for a couple of weeks is a different dynamic. They were fine, however I do think they found it more challenging than we did and were constantly ‘on their best behaviour’ not wanting to disturb Omar or go into the lounge if he was watching TV.

We were asked to host a young man from Syria – Omar – and it was a good experience – he was very easy company, and it was a mix of us kind of doing our own thing and other nights eating together and sitting chatting or watching the football.

“When we registered, we could make some stipulations. I think we just said someone who wouldn’t smoke in the house, would be clean and tidy and respectful. But other than that we wanted people to be able to feel at home.

“The first night Omar was with us was a Champions’ League night and football being a universal language and also the thing I know most about, it made that first evening very straightforward as we watched Barcelona play and were able to chat about players past and present, who we thought could win etc. As big Barca fans we soon learned that Omar supported Real Madrid, which was good fun as there was an El Classico on that weekend which we made a point of watching!”

Omar was just a short-term lodger, and has now moved on to a room in Edinburgh, but Val and her family plan to keep in touch.

“I would encourage people to think about whether it is something they could consider doing, we have said we are happy to do emergency cover for a few weeks but don’t want to commit to long term placements as that seems like a fair balance for our family life at the moment. Rooms for Refugees will give folks more information and answer any questions that people have.

“I’m coming off the council in May and that will be a huge change as it’s been such a big part of my life for the last few years, but I am looking forward to some new challenges emerging.”

This article appears in the April 2017 Issue of Life and Work

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