Swindon garden helps refugees connect with community

Refugees and asylum seekers have set up a community garden.

The Global Gardeners, a club for refugees living in Swindon, plants fruit and vegetables outside a community centre at the Railway Village.

Those waiting for their asylum applications to go through are not allowed to work and must stay in hotels.

The project aims to get them outdoors, socialising with the community.

One of the members of the group, Aman, has a PhD in Plant Protection from the University of Kabul in Afghanistan and has been sharing his expertise with the group, making suggestions about which plants should be bedded out.

He said leaving the hotel to work on the garden was "very great" for him.

"We are waiting for our asylum results and this gardening programme is like entertainment," he said.

Another member, Manuel, has a "talent for construction" and has been helping to build and fix parts of the garden.

Jacob Green, from Live Well Swindon which supports the project, said: "One of my favourite parts of this project is that it feels like we built a community between groups of people who otherwise may not have come into contact with each other.

"Residents will walk past and say what a good job we're doing and take home a few sprigs of mint to make tea.

"Even those kinds of simple interactions are really empowering and heart-warming."

Councillor Jim Grant, Swindon Borough Council's cabinet member for communities, said: "The group helps bring together refugees and asylum seekers to form these important communities and make them feel at home in our town.

"Swindon is a welcoming place and we want to keep it that way.

"[Gardening is] such an important way to get people outside, taking pride in their local area and engaging with the local community."

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