After a break over Christmas and New Year the kavarna has been open and busy again this month.  We have been able to receive new funding from Awards for All, to expand the community dimension of our work and also some funding from Gateshead Council, to help us to continue our work helping clients with their problems.

We have continued to help clients with problems connected to debt, benefits and other issues.  We have also helped people to have a better understanding of what will happen after Brexit takes place and what they need to do, encouraging them to go to what was a very well-attended meeting in Newcastle on 15th January. We also explained that people didn't need to panic and that they didn't have to get everything sorted out by 29th March.  We told them that the deadline was December 2020.  We also told them that they would need to undergo a criminal records check, have to prove where they come from and provide evidence to show that they have lived in this country for five years. 

We are now looking to develop our work, by involving the Roma community more in the work that we do and helping them to be more self-sufficient. As a result, we have begun ESOL lessons and started to develop a range of information leaflets on benefits, debt, housing and schooling translated into Czech and Slovak.  It is envisaged that members of the community would pass these sheets onto other members of the community.

Our future plans include looking into getting Roma involved with joining a local credit union, helping with schooling and young people in general, monthly health sessions and marking International Roma Day in April.   

Our heartfelt thanks go to Awards for All, Gateshead Council, Citizens Advice Gateshead and our other supporters.  

Peter Sagar, Company Secretary, A Living Tradition CIC, and Irma Karchnakova, interpreter and worker, February 2019