......just a smile
Audio
Elspeth
An Interview with Elspeth
Interviewed by Marie-Clare
Elspeth talks about her work welcoming and supporting many of the
international students and their families who come to Lancaster. She
explains the importance of the welcome offered by local people to these individuals and their families.
I came to Lancaster in July 2001 after a period of living overseas. I came here with my husband and three daughters and because my husbands from Lancaster so I came here 7 years ago...
I was quite lonely when I first arrived, I had never lived here before even though my husband is from this area and also I was grieving for friends that I had left overseas and so I didn't really like Lancaster at all when I came here at first..... But I studied an MA at the university and kept myself very busy and met people at university, in the student world. That helped me a little bit to get through that first year of adjusting to being here in Britain and being in Lancaster, but saying that I've grown to like Lancaster because it's small, it is just about the right size for me and what I can cope with shops and the kind of level of business, so I am quite happy living here now and obviously thought time we've got involved in different things and involved in the church and work has helped a lot to make that adjustment.
help them to connect with each other..
I work with student support services to welcome international wives of students at the university ... My role is to gather wives and partners of international students and get them together, to help them to connect with each other and to help them make friends with other international women and then help them to adjust to life in Lancaster. I do a lot of practical help initially in the first, the autumn term, telling them about the library and taking them places and more than that it's more about listening to them and helping them make friends really so that they can live here and adjust to life here. So I run a social programme, a 10 week programme, each term of different activities. I get them involved in sharing their lives as well ..... we talk about British things, we talk about food a lot, we talk about babies and health issues and things that will interest them and help them in their lives really so that's what I do with the Women's Group.
welcomes everybody what ever race or religion...
[My other work is with] Friends International. Friends International is a Christian organisation that wants to reach out to international students, befriend them, and help them in their time here. I joined Friends International because I am a Christian; I feel that is my motivation for reaching out. I feel that my faith, my Christian faith, gives me the desire to reach out to 'aliens and strangers' in this world. In the Bible it talks about Jesus reaching out to 'aliens and strangers' and I believe that's what I have to do, and its not that I have to do it, its really that I have a desire to do it, I really do and I do feel that God gives me that desire and that love for these people that I probably wouldn't ordinarily have by myself. So my work with Friends International is very much linking students with local Christian churches primarily to befriend them, to look after them, to make them feel welcome ... to love them in a way that they can feel accepted and what ever their faith is, it doesn't matter, just so that they have a connection with some local people here in Lancaster. Practically we do that through offering the International Cafe as a place of welcome and friendship and a place were they can come and feel really relaxed and just have a good time. We also link up with hospitality and I do quite a lot of social outings as well like strawberry picking and Wray Scarecrow festival and organising things that will just help them feel more at home here. .....
........The aim [of the International Café] is that it just welcomes everybody what ever race or religion or not as the case may be, if they wish to find out about Christianity that's fine they can do that, but the aim really is just to make them feel welcome here and without any, and with out them having to change or with out them to be somebody else.
... I have a huge team of volunteers with Friends International, I work through many of the different churches not just one denomination or anything, it's right across the board. There are individuals, some of them who have maybe lived overseas and had an experience of living in Africa or Asia or somewhere and they want to connect with that, you know, a similar kind of person which is great, others are just more hospitable and just feel that they want to offer a meal or something like that. I could do with more volunteers all the time you know because there are so many students here, nearly 3 thousand, and so many of them would like more contact and more regular contact, but I feel that we do have a number of people who really are genuinely interested and generally just want to befriend them and help make then feel better about being in Lancaster.
They will remember that for the rest of their lives...
Sometimes it's hard for local people to make that contact [with international families], so even if there are people out there who would like to there aren't places or social events or things that could make that contact. It's not easy if you are riding on the bus to speak to an international student but if there is an event, like something an outing or a walk or a ceilidh , an event that people could organise specifically for internationals then there is much more of a possibility that they will just, you know, make that contact. I mean part of my job at Friends International is encouraging the churches to create social things, for example, the Baptist church run a keep fit night on Tuesday night, we [would] like to see more international people just come along to that, it's a very easy thing that they can do. They can meet local people there, they can get fit, have fun together. ...If people are wishing to offer hospitality and a meal and be more involved with International students then I'm also happy to, very happy for that to be ... because for some of these students the highlight of their year is to get invited to a local persons home, just for a meal, even if that is just once a year. They will remember that for the rest of their lives, and I'm not exaggerating, they really will. We think that's a small thing or it's may be something that we couldn't do because 'oh we don't know about their food' or what ever but the fact is they are far more willing to take that step and come into our homes that we are to actually offer it really. Again it's difficult for somebody on the street to just offer hospitality it has to come through something either like the student support offices or organisations like myself and Friends International.
.... just a smile .... I think that can make a huge difference, sometimes a smile on the street opens up the opportunity for a little conversation in town and you know some of these students, they don't always have other student friends. They might not always relate, just because they are all international students, they don't always relate to other international students and they can be incredibly lonely. We find in the street or in town they are very willing to talk, you know if you meet someone in Sainsbury's or what ever, great conversations can be had over the fruit stall and then who knows...