Gemma & Mustafa: A Season of Beginnings

As winter settles over Bristol, we celebrate a mentoring partnership that began with uncertainty and now ends with hope. This is the story of Gemma and Mustafa, two people who met at a pivotal moment for them both.

A Nervous Beginning, A New Chapter

When Gemma completed her mentor training, she carried the familiar flutter of nerves: would I be helpful? Would we connect? What would he need? At the very same time, Mustafa received life-changing news: after a long wait, he had finally been granted settled status.

Their first meeting felt like a shared exhale: “me and Mustafa had our first meeting today. Mustafa had been granted settled status this week so we both celebrated this and talked about what was to come next. Mustafa was very happy and relieved. We walked around the harbour and got to know each other more, talking about literature, education, family and the difference in British and Sudanese culture.”

They began the slow, generous work of understanding each other. In those early steps, a partnership was born. However, the weeks that followed were full of challenges. Just as he found safety in his status, Mustafa received a notice to leave the hotel where he had been staying. With nowhere secure to go, he took a leap of faith - sleeping on friends’ sofas, trusting that something more stable would come.

His perseverance paid off. He found a room in a shared house with local people in Bristol. Not only a roof, but a place he loves, a space where his new life in the UK could truly begin. Gemma supported him through it all, sending him possible housing options.

Together, they kept walking. “I showed Mustafa Conham River Park and we did a long circular walk round Dundridge Park / Troopers Hill. It was nice to show him as Mustafa was very connected to the river back home.” These walks became part of their rhythm. Mustafa had a clear ambition from the start: he wanted to work. Gemma helped him shape his CV, practise interview skills and navigate the unfamiliar pathway to employment in the UK.

Her support met his determination and in the final two weeks of their partnership, Mustafa secured a job, which he has now started. But, their meetings were not only about completing tasks, they became moments of connection, two worlds meeting in small, warm conversations. “Me and Mustafa continued with our broad chats which feel like a cultural exchange. We spoke about differences in the education system between Sudan and the UK, Bristol dialect and relationships with nature.”

A partnership which began tentatively grew into a mutual exchange of stories, knowledge and ways of seeing the world.

A Winter Ending, A New Beginning

Gemma and Mustafa marked their final meeting with a celebratory trip to Bath. A fitting close to a journey defined by resilience, exploration and new horizons. Mustafa steps into the new year with a home he loves, a job he earned and the beginning of his life in the UK. And Gemma steps forward as a confident mentor, carrying the joy and learning from her first partnership into whatever comes next.

In the heart of winter, this story shines with the quiet warmth of possibility.

Gemma & Mustafa: A Season of Beginnings

A Nervous Beginning, A New Chapter

A partnership which began tentatively grew into a mutual exchange of stories, knowledge and ways of seeing the world.

A Winter Ending, A New Beginning

In the heart of winter, this story shines with the quiet warmth of possibility.

The Autumn term has gone by in a flash, with classes seeing huge interest as our partners around Bristol continue to do a brilliant job helping refugees and asylum seekers find new activities in the city.

Against a mixed national backdrop, Borderlands’ classes have been a consistent oasis of positivity, laughter and learning, and our volunteer teachers have put on a huge variety of high-quality classes covering everything from catching buses around Bristol to local myths and stories.

Students both old and new have been coming to both our Pre Entry and Entry 1 classes in strong numbers, proving both the huge demand for English and the commitment of those new to the city to learn it. This demand has led to us starting new classes, with one new session in a hotel in the city centre responding to a huge enthusiasm from members, while another has focussed on helping students with their first steps into English, adapting to an alphabet and grammatical structure they hadn’t learned before. We have also welcomed lots of new volunteers from a wide range of fascinating backgrounds, and have been blown away with their enthusiasm with jumping in at the deep end and increasing our range of teaching styles.

Our classes also offer our members a chance to find out more about activities and opportunities they can access around Bristol, complementing learning English with a chance to reengage with skills or passions they have previously been involved in, or even to find something completely new. We have had a few success stories this term including one woman who told her poetry group about her history playing football in her home country, and after a short discussion with the teachers she had been recommended a local club that is exceptional in offering a diverse, supportive but competitive environment. Returning to poetry 2 weeks later she told of how she had gone to training, been selected to play and scored on her debut, and was really thrilled to carry on playing with and getting to know her new team mates.

With Christmas coming lessons are starting to wrap up, some are currently focussing on celebrations from around the world while others try and decode the festive reasoning behind traditions such as from presents in shoes and lumps of coal. We will pause for 2 weeks over the end of December, and look forward to starting again in January and carrying on where we’ve left off.

A huge thank you to everyone who has been involved or supported our sessions, and see you in the new year!

At the end of 2025, Outreach at Borderlands is bigger and more impactful than ever. We’ve been fortunate to welcome Billy to the team, as well as an incredible group of volunteers who assist us in the hotel drop ins. Everyone has hit the ground running with enthusiasm and empathy, two integral qualities for involvement at Borderlands!

This year has been tough for people living in asylum hotels. As hostility towards asylum seekers has intensified across the UK, so too has the threat of isolation, with many feeling disconnected from their communities and unwelcome in society. Collaboratively with all the other brilliant organisations in the city, we are working to make Bristol a safe, friendly and welcoming place for asylum seekers to arrive, often after hugely difficult journeys. From exclusion to belonging, we aim to lower the barriers between asylum seekers and the wider community which threaten to create alienation and marginalisation.

The Outreach project has evolved to meet these growing challenges. Our focus is on ‘connection and mobility’, and the services we provide contribute to these strategic aims. We are often the first charity to have contact with new arrivals in Bristol and so our first priority is to provide them with a warm welcome; a friendly interaction cannot be underestimated in this era of hostility. Next, we offer practical support, using creative ways to help asylum seekers navigate the obstacles often purposefully constructed against them. This includes SIM card distributions to increase digital mobility, referrals for bicycles and applications for bus passes to provide independence and mobility around the city, as well as signposting and referrals to other organisations for social mobility. As a reminder, asylum seekers in hotels get £9.95 a week to live on and therefore must adapt and seek creative methods to find their way.

Some highlights over the last 6 months include a trip to Sims Hill Shared Harvest, more family days at Westbury Wildlife Park, restarting community concert visits at St George’s and a weekly music group called ‘Folk Stars’ run by local musicians who will teach children in hotels how to play ukulele and guitar! We also make an effort to promote culture and arts opportunities throughout the city such as Dovetail Orchestra, community sewing groups, access to the free cinema screenings and courses at the Folk House. The goal is to have something for everyone, and if there’s nothing, we can go away and find something for them. Bristol is a vibrant and generous city with so much to offer if you know where to look.

Working in the hotels means we can make connections with people who face a lot of hostility and provide a regular safe space where they’ll be treated with respect, dignity and kindness. We’re able to respond quickly and support people in a proactive way. The more we talk to people, the more we find out what is available, what is missing, and how we can strengthen our support.

The Outreach project is still expanding and growing to meet the high demand for the service we’re providing. We are recruiting a group of hardworking volunteers to go into the hotels so that we go from two people working at each drop in to 4 or 5 and improve the quality and scope of support. If you’re interested in helping out, please go to our website and sign up to volunteer with us!