Last year Scottish PEN's Writers in Exile Committee were approached by the International Women's Group at Sighthill Community Centre, to take part in an event for Refugee Week. The immediate result of this fruitful collaboration was the postcard collection, which has proved extremely popular (only 230 left unsold of the 1000 ordered and a modest profit already made for both organisations). But that was just the start.

So successful was the first collaboration that we were asked to take part in Precious Metal, an afternoon organised by the North Glasgow Integration Network, of which IWG is part, as part of Glasgow's 16 Days of Action To Eliminate Violence Against Women staged in Glasgow last December. The afternoon, whose theme was 'Peace' was the culmination of several weeks preparation by the NGIN, including jewellery workshops at which women from refugee groups interpreted the concept of peace in the jewellery they made. There were some striking images, including a necklace made out of weapons (a swords into ploughshares idea), and the jewellery was on display alongside photographs of the women wearing their own creations.

Scottish PEN's contribution was to organise a reading of Shi Tao's poem June by women from the refugee community in their own languages. We had readings in Arabic, Punjabi and Somali, and (by SPEN members Sue Reid Sexton, Etta Dunn and Maggie Rabatski respectively) in English, Scots and Gaelic. The poem made a strong impression and several people present asked about it afterwards.

Our other contribution was to man (or rather woman) a 'graffiti wall' - a large board on which people could write their messages of peace and goodwill in their own languages. All three languages of Scotland were once again represented and most of the languages of the refugee community. Several children got in the spirit of the thing and wrote their own messages - though I'm not quite sure what Batman (drawn by one little boy) had to do with peace!

I feel that it is a privilege for SPEN members to be able to contribute to the work of refugee groups, and a direct expression of that part of PEN's charter
which states: Members of PEN should at all times use what influence they have in favour of good understanding and mutual respect between nations; they pledge themselves to do their utmost to dispel race, class and national hatreds, and to champion the ideal of one humanity living in peace in one world. We are not only fostering 'good understanding and mutual respect' but through this involvement become aware both of the many difficulties facing the refugee community in our midst and their resilience in striving to overcome them.

A C Clarke

For pictures of the event go to

http://cid-5dfed4253942be3a.skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?page=play&resid=5DFED4253942BE3A!161

For more information on the problems facing refugees in Scotland go to http://unitycentreglasgow.org/ or http://www.scottishrefugeecouncil.org.uk/.