On Sunday 6th June 2004, a group of 7 concerned friends, activists and supporters met together in Manchester, and this was the very first meeting of the Boaz Trustees! During the next few months, a management team was established, office space was provided, and our hosting programme was launched.

It took 12 months to get Boaz to the point of being formally registered as a charity, and that’s why we’re taking this whole year to look back on how far we’ve come, but also to reflect on how much more there is to do, as we work together to see an end to destitution.

We are so grateful to everyone who has stood with us and supported our work in countless ways over the last 15 years. We’re looking forward to sharing more with you in the year ahead. Look out for our #BoazIs15 hashtag on social media for more!

The Book of Boaz was published in 2014 and tells Dave’s personal account of the first ten years of Boaz. The second, Refugee Stories, was published two years later and shares powerful stories based on interviews Dave carried out with eight individuals who have stayed with Boaz over the years.

We recently received a copy of a fantastic and thought provoking review written by Rev Dr Michael Smith SJ, which was published in The Way magazine. We’re grateful to Rev Dr Smith and The Way for allowing us to share the review here. In this article, Rev Dr Smith reflects on the hidden violence so many people experience as they seek asylum here in the UK, using Johan Gaultung’s typology of violence to illustrate three different forms of violence experienced. He explores structural violence (inflicted by the asylum process) in relation to other, perhaps more obvious types of violence including cultural violence and direct violence.

Michael Smith concludes that Boaz is perhaps working as an ’embodiment of social grace’, serving as an antidote to this structural violence (or social sin).

“Boaz opposes the structural violence embedded in the asylum system by walking with refugees and providing them with well-organized, just and loving support.”

We love this summary of our work and found it so encouraging to read this review which captures our essence so well!

As we enter our 15th anniversary year, we wanted to take this opportunity highlight Dave’s two books, and commend them to anyone who is interested in finding out more about the history of our work with people seeking sanctuary here in Greater Manchester and beyond.

(The links above are to Hive, but both books should be available to purchase from other online and offline booksellers!)

Every month we run a Free Shop at Boaz for our clients who have had their asylum applications refused and who are not allowed to claim benefits or work.

The Free Shop is managed by Lisa, and her team of trusty volunteers who do a great job of getting everything set up and ready for everyone- right down to the refreshments (amazing cakes!) for people while they are waiting.

We’re dependent on donations to make our Free Shop happen each month and following last week’s busy Free Shop, our store cupboards are starting to look bare!

We currently need the following items:

• Sanitary towels
• Men’s shampoo
• Men’s shower gel
• Women’s shampoo
• Shaving foam
• Basmati rice
• Tuna in sunflower oil
• Tinned sweetcorn / vegetables
• Coffee
• Tea
• Hot chocolate

If you can help with any of these items, please email Lisa on info@boaztrust.org.uk – she’d love to hear from you!

If you’re not able to donate groceries, we’re always incredibly grateful for financial donations for our Free Shop. We’ve set up a special page here where you can give to our Free Shop Fund. We’ll make sure the money is used specifically for the provision of food (usually fresh fruit and vegetables as well as other essentials to make sure there’s enough for everyone).

Thanks for reading!

Here at Boaz, for many years now we have used the Lent season as a period of reflection and awareness raising for our work with people who have been homeless through the asylum process.

If you’ve not already committed to giving something up or taking on a new habit this Lent, why not take a look at the list below and see what you can do to reflect, give or act during this season?

• Our friends at the Jesuit Refugee Service send out a daily email through Lent, sharing stories of some of the people they work alongside.  You can sign up for it here.

• Many people give up chocolate, coffee or alcohol in Lent. If this is for you, why not collect the money you save on these treats and then at the end of Lent, make a donation here to our work providing vital accommodation and support for people who are seeking sanctuary ?

• Instead of giving something up, why not get a big box, and throughout Lent, maybe daily, weekly, or just whenever you can, pop an item in there for our next Boaz Free Shop. We’ve posted a shopping list of needed items here – we are always so grateful to everyone who donates so that we can keep our Free Shop running!
  

• Most of our clients who are seeking asylum aren’t allowed to claim benefits or work. So they rely on a weekly food parcel from one of our local destitution projects. Could you live on a food parcel for a week, instead of your regular food shop? We call this our Lent Challenge, and you can read all about it here on our brand new Lent Challenge Guide for 2019. (Just click on the thumbnail image of the guide and it will open up as a PDF document.)

• Easter Eggs! Lent ends in Holy Week, as Christians remember the events leading up to Jesus’ death, before moving towards Easter Sunday when they celebrate Jesus’resurrection . We’d love to be able to give out some chocolate eggs at our March and /or April Free Shop… last year it was great to learn from one of our team members from Iran about their tradition of giving decorated eggs during the Nowruz celebration, i.e. Iranian New Year. If you are able to drop any chocolate eggs off to our office, for this double celebration, please let Lisa know on info@boaztrust.org.uk

And that’s it for now. If you have any questions at all please get in touch with us on info@boaztrust.org.uk and we’ll do our best to help!

Yes, it’s that time again for us to join together to eat, chat, share, update and eat again! At the last Boaz Family Night, we had the pleasure of celebrating Dave Smith’s transition from staff to a Trustee at Boaz! This time, we will be celebrating Christmas!

I know it is a little earlier than usual to celebrate Christmas but we hope you will be up for joining us on Monday 26th November.

As always, we love seeing you and sharing about what’s been happening at Boaz. Of course, as we’re celebrating Christmas, we’d love to see you in your Christmas jumpers, hats, tinsel and bells too! If you’re happy to, it would also be great if you could bring some food to share as well!

If you know someone who is interested in our work, please bring them along!

We’ve been blessed to be able to use St Edumund’s Church for our Family Nights since we moved to Hulme so a huge thank you to them for providing such a great venue for us!

Here are all the details :

Date – Monday 26th November

Time – 6:30pm-8.30pm

Venue – St Edmund’s Church, Alexandra Road South, Whalley Range, Manchester, M16 8EZ

Parking – Street parking is available on the side streets, and also on the main road (Alexandra Road South) after 6pm.

We look forward to seeing you there!