Inside Migrateful: the refugee-led London cooking classes giving back

When Ahmad was 24-years-old he was shot twice, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

It was 2008, and he was living in his home country of Lebanon during the internal conflict between the Sunni and the Shia Muslims. Working as a paramedic at the time, Ahmad learned to live with his injuries until 2016 when he encountered a road block manned by the same man who had shot him eight years earlier.

Later that day Ahmad was followed and shot at by a gunman on a motorbike, he then learned from state intelligence services that he was being targeted so he fled the country, leaving behind his job as well as his fiancée.

“I’ve been in the UK since 2016. It’s been really hard. I loved my life in Lebanon. My fiancée has now got married to someone else. I’ve lost everything," Ahmad tells the Standard.

“Back in Lebanon I had a very senior position and a good salary. I used to be an extremely sporty person before the shooting; hiking, hunting, scuba-diving. Sport was what made me feel alive. I was a very good long distance runner in my youth.”

Now in London, Ahmad trains with a wheelchair basketball team and regularly teaches Lebanese cooking classes with Migrateful as a way to make money – something that is near-impossible to do as an asylum seeker.

Jess Thompson set up Migrateful in 2017 after discussions with a group of refugee women who, despite being over-qualified, were unemployed due to restrictions, language barriers and unrecognised qualifications in the UK.

“In one particular session all of them said that they would love to teach the group how to cook their native cuisine and that was when I realised that other people in the UK would also want to learn, while also being a great way to get refugees into employment, meeting people, practising English,” Thompson says.

In 2016 Thompson completed a 10-month Year Here Fellowship, which helped her to incubate the idea and the classes originally grew organically, before receiving some help from the UnLtd team last year who helped her think through the best strategy for growth.

“Some of the people Migrateful helps have been with us for two years and it’s amazing to see how different they are now compared to the person they were at the beginning,” Thompson continues. “They’ve grown so much in confidence. One of the things we measure is this ladder representing how they feel about themselves. At the top of the ladder there are people that have good education, and at the bottom – those who have no connections to a social capital.

“When they started, all of our chefs were unemployed, had no friends and very much felt at the bottom of society. Now, after teaching the cookery classes where they’re the leader and everyone is there to celebrate their talent, their story, their culture, this really has changed how they feel about themselves. They say that they feel very welcome in the country for the first time and they feel hopeful about their future. That’s quite amazing to hear from them.”

Migrateful now runs 15 classes a week, with the Middle Eastern, Syrian, Iranian and Lebanese classes being the most popular. “Those classes normally sell out in a few hours!” Thompson adds.

Elizabeth, like Ahmad, has a similar story. Originally from Nigeria, where she graduated with a masters in psychology and worked for a newspaper, she moved to the UK to be with her sisters after her mother died.

Elizabeth says: “Four of my older sisters went to the UK for university. As the youngest, I stayed in Nigeria to look after my mum after our dad passed away. When I was eight months pregnant, my mum died. I became very depressed. One of my sisters invited me to come visit her in London. So I went for a two week holiday with my daughter. As soon as I arrived in London, I knew I wanted to live here. After the death of my mother and my deep grief, I needed a fresh start.”

This was 2010 and Elizabeth went to the Home Office to state her case, her husband joining her in London a few months later. Elizabeth spent the next eight years as an illegal immigrant, unable to work or receive benefits and in October 2018 she finally received her papers from the Home Office.

Elizabeth continues: “By the time we realised it wasn’t going to be a quick process and our London dream was slipping from our grasp, it was too late. We were trapped. I had lost my job in Nigeria and had sold everything there: our car and our house. Jobs are very hard to get in Nigeria. I used to cry myself to sleep every night, I never thought my life would turn out like this.

“I spent those years volunteering at a local soup kitchen. Cooking and serving food to the homeless became my new vocation. It at least made me feel I was useful to society.”

Migrateful offered a small salvation, “I felt welcomed and listened to; others were going through the same things as me. It helped me to appreciate Britain a lot more. I no longer felt I was in a hostile place.”

Along with her husband and children, Elizabeth was granted leave to remain and continues to host Nigerian cooking lessons with Migrateful – teaching recipes that were taught to her by her mum.

Elizabeth continues: “The experience has connected me to the Elizabeth I used to be before things went crazy. As most of my recipes were taught to me by my mum, it makes me feel I am doing her memory proud by teaching them to others and I find myself mentioning her often in my classes.”

Despite a difficult four years since leaving his home country, Ahmad’s outlook also remains positive: “Life has many different stages. One moment you’re up and in the blink of your eye you’re down. But you must never give up. Every stage involves a new version of you. There’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.

“What’s happened to me in my life has taught me that sometimes life throws strange things at you. I believe life gives you the message for a reason, only time shows you the meaning of this message. I feel very grateful for my life. I feel hopeful that the Home Office will accept my claim soon. As an asylum seeker I can’t work. I have no reason to wake up early. But luckily I have my cookery classes – they give me something to plan for.”

To find out more about Migrateful, visit migrateful.org