Leith Open Space

A Polish home from home

“Everyone is welcome to attend and many local people do come along.”

In translation it means a ‘meeting place’, but Swietlica means much more than that for members of Edinburgh’s Polish community. And weekly social activities are not restricted to Polish people. Monday gatherings at Fort Community Wing are welcoming events for all local people, as volunteer organisers explain in a short article Kasia Raszewska has sent to Leith Open Space blog.

“The Edinburgh Polish Community ‘Swietlica’ was established in Leith in April 2006 by a group of people committed to making a positive change. Swietlica provides a range of activities and services for Polish migrants, particularly for people who are disadvantaged, isolated or vulnerable.

This is the first and very successful community facility for the new migrant Polish community in Britain, providing free advocacy, social support, guidance, and advice services. In its first year Swietlica received more than 4,000 requests for support from adults and children. This high level of demand confirmed the need for a community base and support services for the Polish community. Since then, Swietlica has been a focal point for Polish people, providing an evolving range of services including: welfare advice, information, counselling, education as well as social activities. Although the centre caters mainly for the migrant community everyone is welcome to attend and many local people do come along.

All services, activities and food are free of charge. All this has been made possible by the dedicated, steadfast commitment of a strong volunteer group of 30 Polish professionals: social workers, teachers, psychologists as well as service users who are regularly helping out at the Centre. The generous donations and funding not just from within the Polish community but also from the wider Scottish community are of great importance. In particular, the funding and support received from Multi-Cultural Family Base, Fort Community Wing, Cattanach Charitable Trust, City of Edinburgh Council, North & Leith Local Development Community Grants Fund, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh have been of great assistance.

If you would like to find out more, visit Swietlica, open every Monday between 4 and 9 pm at Fort Community Wing, North Fort Street, EH6 4HR.”
Email: info@swietlica.org.uk

Add comment January 23rd, 2008

Kneeling in protest against Guantanamo

Edinburgh protesters kneel in silent ’submission’ at the Mound(thanks to Leith and North website for use of the picture)

There was a Guantanamo dog dressed in an orange coat, and a choir singing as we walked along Princes Street. But the most striking moment was when over 150 people wearing orange boiler suits knelt in silent protest while a young ‘guard’ in combat gear shouted at us: “I don’t want to see your eyes, look down, look down.”

This was the moment when people in Edinburgh, Belfast and London joined thousands of others in cities across the world as Amnesty International marked the sixth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on Friday January 11. Leith Open Space supporters were among them, donning orange suits to kneel in the infamous submission position outside the US consulate in Regent Terrace and then again at the Mound. You can see Nick Gardner’s report and pictures on the Leith and North website as well as many more pictures on the Amnesty Flickr page.

Since then Amnesty has emailed all of us who took part to say that the day following demonstrations the Chief of the US Military, Admiral Mike Mullen, admitted that he thought Guantánamo Bay should be closed - because he believed that negative publicity worldwide had been “pretty damaging” to the image of the US. (Find out more).

“Not a day longer”, a petition calling for the base to be closed, has now more than 3,000 signatures including the names of parliamentarians of all parties in Scotland and among them are our elected representatives for Edinburgh North and Leith Mark Lazarowicz MP and Malcolm Chisholm MSP.

Add comment January 23rd, 2008