Lockdown has provided the opportunity to teach young refugees new skills, the director of a charity helping asylum seekers, has said.
Breadwinners, an organisation based in Victoria Park teaches asylum seekers to sell artisan bread both in person and online. During lockdown they have been delivering bread across London, which has greatly improved the commercial side of its business as individuals are confined to their homes.
Martin Campos told the Hackney Post, ‘Having this eCommerce (side of the business) means that we can now provide skills that we never thought we would on our market.’
The people that Martin and his colleagues seek to help might never have had the opportunity to learn skills such as ‘how to use a laptop’ or ‘write an email’.
The charity had been planning to integrate such skills into their training. Yet despite the potential adversity, coronavirus has provided the perfect opportunity to do such.
As farmers markets have been allowed to stay open this time round, concerns about the individuals not getting any social interaction have been allayed. Breadwinners have stalls across London and can be visited at Victoria Park Market every Sunday between 10am-4pm.
‘It’s a lot better that [the beneficiaries] can see people at the market. Many of them…are quite isolated. A good number suffer from PTSD and [as a result] do not want to stay at home.’
