Summary: Welcome to the Refugee voices Scotland podcast it's not often we get invited to sit in on a meeting for a refugee project. <br> <br> Ok, it has never happened. <a href="https://www.refugeevoicesscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/colours-of-edinburgh-team.jpg"></a><br> <br> We were delighted to be invited to join the Meeting of the <a href="https://www.coloursedinburgh.co.uk/">Colours of Edinburgh</a> project. Colours of Edinburgh is a refugee and art project and it's happening on June 21st. Our Ken joined the meeting and then after the meeting spoke to co-founders Moh Al-Haifi and Muriel McIntyre. <br> -0-<br> Here's the transcript:<br> <br> K: I am in Edinburgh today at the University building and I've just sat through a meeting of the colours of Edinburgh project and I must say that was an incredible meeting I wish I went to meetings that were as precise, action-orientated and passionate as that one was.<br> <br> Moh: Thank you so much <br> <br> K: The co-founders of Colours of Edinburgh are here with me, Moh and Muriel. Let’s start with you Moh. How did this all start?<br> <br> Moh: It actually all started about four and a half months ago when Muriel and I decided to go to a STAR meeting. STAR is a society in university and it actually exists in most universities in the UK and it stands for Student Action for Refugees. And we sat along with one of the first meetings they had and we noticed that sure, it was really exciting really nice, they did a few smaller projects, fundraising events but we also wanted to do more than just fundraise a bit of money. We really wanted to find a way to really talk to the public in Scotland.<br> <br> Muriel is an artist herself. I'm not so much an artist. I am more the business mind behind this. So I still am very interested in art and Muriel kind of wanted to put her input as well, so we decided to say, you know, let's try to use art as a medium of conveying this message. Of conveying what it means to be a refugee in Scotland.<br> <br> So that's how it really started in that first meeting. We then soon after, I kinda sat down after that and created a pitch. And next meeting I asked for the first 10 to 15 minutes of the STAR meeting and I said I wanted to suggest a project and kind of pitch it to people in that society. So I did that. Recruited our first maybe 5 to 10 people and we quickly started working on things. Quickly started talking about potential ideas, how we can do things. Talking about our actual main event which is the art exhibition which we will get to probably later. That was the start of it. Eventually, we noticed we need more help, we need more hand we need more hands<br> <br> Mu: And the team got bigger and bigger<br> <br> Moh: Exactly, the team got bigger and bigger because we noticed that, you know everyone that came on board has amazing ideas. So the idea itself was so ever evolving and so growing naturally by the people that came in joined. So the only thing we had to do is really recruit more people and ended up with about 20 in total, plus-minus. Some came on for a short while to help us and then left, and some have been there from the very start.<br> <br> K: What is the aim of colours of Edinburgh?<br> <br> Moh: So the main aim of Colours of Edinburgh is really to convey the message and make people understand who are in Scotland, the locals, mainly in Scotland, understand what it means to be a refugee, especially in this country and we really tried to make it a local project to make it more relatable to our audience. So every time, every meeting, every time we come up with a new idea our main focus is still at the end. Is it going to help reach a wider audience and make them understand what it means to be a refugee?<br> <br> But having said that it doesn't only mean that we want to talk about the negative sides of what it means to be a refugee.
