Preston city of Sanctuary were in attendance on the first day of UCLAN’s Diversity & Inclusion Festival last week.

In the morning we had a stall at the Big Get Together Fair.  The Harrington Social Space also played host to the opening ceremony with performance of Chinese folk dance and a Chinese lion dance along with Brazillian Capoeira.  The event was really well attended and it was fantastic to see so many students taking an interest in the issues.

In the afternoon our chair Felicity Pryke spoke at the Refugee Crisis Awareness seminar alongside representatives from Lancashire County Council, UCLAN, the Red Cross and Preston’s College.  Author Gulwali Passarlay also spoke about his experiences as a refugee from Afghanistan and his book The Lightless Sky.  There was some lively debate and very interesting conversation about how we can best serve sanctuary seekers in Preston.