PALEWELL PRESS

PAMOJA Women Together is a group of refugee, asylum-seeking and irregular migrant women from a wide range of countries, faiths and backgrounds. The group has a large shifting membership, some of whom you can see in this photo at the launch of their anthology The World is for Everyone

The women meet every Friday at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum or out in the community to share new experiences, skills and friendships, and to enact positive change: for themselves, for their children, for society and for other women. Their friendship is a cradle of support and a protection against loneliness and isolation; the things that they do together give them self-confidence in this new place they have landed up in. Poems and stories, photographs, food shared around tables – all of these things give them a voice in a community that often ignores and stereotypes them.

But the clear voices of PAMOJA women also have a profound effect on those who encounter the group. They talk of things that are universal - of courage needed, pain overcome; of puzzlement, patience, struggle and rejection; and of the ultimate triumph of the spirit.