This means that we work together with local community groups who want to help displaced families resettle in Yorkshire.

Our Community Sponsorship Coordinator, Sue Parsons, writes:

The Syrian family supported by the Nidderdale Welcome Community Sponsorship Group have been living in Pateley Bridge for nearly eighteen months now.

The family members have worked several part-time jobs, but their real dream is to have their own catering business. The Sponsorship Group volunteers who pop in to see them have been really impressed with the family’s cooking.

To bring their dream a little closer, H. and M. ran a pop-up restaurant in Summerbridge Methodist Church on the evening of 13th January. It was a huge success! They served sixty people with a selection of six starters, seven hot main courses, and two delicious desserts.

As well as enjoying delicious Syrian food, the diners improved their knowledge of Syria, taking part in a quiz between the main course and dessert. The family’s story was printed out and put on every table, and everybody was moved reading it. The parents had left Syria in 2011 and lived as refugees in neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan. The births of their three daughters prompted their decision to register with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to secure a happy and safe life elsewhere. The family arrived in Pateley Bridge in July 2022. They are very happy there and taking part in community life. In fact, they are so keen to be part of the local community that every single member of the family entered an item at the Nidderdale Agricultural Show.