Our volunteers play a vital role in supporting refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants as they navigate life in the UK. From language lessons to practical advice, their dedication makes a real difference in helping people build new lives. In this blog, Rahmat, one of our incredible volunteers, shares his journey—from moving to the UK himself to now supporting others in their own resettlement.
“I’m a retired Finance Director. I am married with two daughters and four grandchildren. I was born in Iran and came to England in 1970 to go to university before training as a Chartered Accountant. We lived and worked in and around London until 1997 when we moved to Brighton, where my wife is from—well, Hove, actually!
The first few years after retirement I was busy travelling, helping with the grandchildren and gardening, but I was increasingly aware of the serious problems migrants faced on arrival in the UK and thought that I might be able to help in some way.
When I arrived in England, I spoke English and was well supported in many ways and yet I found it quite difficult to settle in a new country on my own, away from friends and family. I could only imagine how much harder it was for new migrants some of whom had arrived here under very difficult circumstances, had little or no English and had minimal resources available to them. That is when I offered to volunteer with ViE.
I spent the first few weeks at ViE helping with the food bank before I was asked to help an Afghan couple who’d arrived here after many months of hardship via migrant camps in Pakistan. They’d had to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban arrived and the UK forces withdrew from the country.
After all these years, I still remember some of my mother language, Farsi and the migrant couple spoke Dari, a dialect of Farsi, so it seemed that I might be able to help. My role was mainly to teach them English, act as liaison between them and the Voices in Exile case workers and as an informal translator when required.
I use free ESOL resources available on the internet to prepare a weekly lesson plan, to help them with English vocabulary, speaking or grammar, but we also find time to discuss their day to day life here, address problems they might have with utilities, the banks, their landlord, etc. for their case worker to deal with, as well as their old lives and family they have left behind in Afghanistan.
It’s now just over two years since I started working with them and I hope that they are a little better prepared to manage their lives independently.”
Voices in Exile volunteer, Rahmat