West Midlands Regional Family Learners of the Year

The Zainal Family, Birmingham

Nominated by: Michael Lilley, Director, My Time CIC, Birmingham (www.mytime.org.uk) Tel: 0121 766 6699 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0121 766 6699      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0121 766 6699      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Email: michael@mytime.org.uk Publicity contact: William Lilley Tel: 0121 766 6699 Email: william@mytime.org.uk

Learning has kept Chalak Zainal’s family together despite the enormous difficulties he faces as a Kurdish asylum seeker
from Iraq who has been waiting five years for a decision on whether he can stay in the UK.

Chalak also suffers from bipolar disorder, but through learning English and being part of an intercultural learning programme – Family Action for Choice Tomorrow (FACT) –
he is now able to speak about mental illness and social cohesion to his local black and minority ethnic community.
His daughters Miriam and Rosalina have developed their own skills: Miriam has written about her experiences to encourage others, and Rosalina is helping her father to design a mural.

“Learning together has made us understand that we have each other and that is the most important thing,” said Chalak’s wife, Valentina. “We have learnt how to believe in each other,
and parents to believe in their children, and children to believe in their parents.”

Chalak does voluntary work in an Islamic garden project and in establishing a residential centre for homeless fathers.
He hopes that the skills he has gained will help him to get work if he is allowed to stay.
The Zainals were the pilot family for FACT and helped secure funding from Birmingham City Council.

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