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A trainee cooking a meal in the Handcrafted kitchen
Abdul’s Story

Engaging young asylum-seekers

Abdul fled on a 5,000-mile journey, fighting to survive for 18 months at the age of just 14.  Abdul’s father had served in the Afghan military and lost his life to Taliban reprisals after the US withdrawal.

When he was then placed with us in County Durham, Abdul struggled to adapt - he isolated himself and fell out with his housemates. Conflict resulted in police call outs, damaged property and Abdul wanted to move into a flat with another housing provider, but by the next Monday he was evicted from there for causing substantial damage.

Abdul faced homelessness but Handcrafted believes that everyone deserves another chance, even if it costs us. So, we settled him into another Handcrafted house.

When his first new housemate was due to arrive, Abdul was anxious. He decided to make them feel welcome by preparing a meal, but we had to teach him to cook first!

We have kept up the cooking lessons. He can now cook a range of meals independently including an Afghan national dish. This led to growth in confidence and healthy coping mechanisms. It gave him space to open up about his struggles and he is now accessing counselling.

Image depicting someone helping another person up a mountain

Testimonials

There are countless challenges and barriers between our Fairchance service users and a healthy, productive and satisfying life.

We often use the term ‘chaotic lifestyle’ to describe the multitude of issues they face, and we contrast this lifestyle with an ideal that is secure, positive, stable and fulfilling. Often people looking in on the lifestyles of our service users find them intimidating, disorientating and full of risk – it should be no surprise that the same is true the other way around. For our service users who are looking into employment, education and stable accommodation, what they often see is a very unfamiliar culture and environment that they are unable to navigate.

Handcrafted helps to bridge this gap. It’s a middle ground between work and leisure where our service users are building confidence, self-esteem, working relationships, responsibilities, a sense of achievement. As a natural consequence of this and armed with the skills necessary to make this transition our service users are developing goals and ambitions and making plans for the futures that they are beginning to see as a reality for themselves.

Joe K, Fair Chance Project, Oasis Aquila Housing