To coincide with International Women’s day Devoteam UK recently held TechLab with Xenia, we met as strangers and left as friends.
Xenia is an ancient Greek word that means “the love for strangers”.
The UK has an ever-growing migrant population. The number of people seeking asylum here increased by 63% between 2011 and 2015 alone the UK received over 30,000 asylum applications from countries where English is not an official language. However, proficiency in English is a vital tool for navigating everyday life in the UK. Without a secure knowledge of English, even simple everyday tasks can become a struggle, and research has shown that migrant women often face greater barriers to accessing English classes than others. Started in 2016 in Hackney, London, Xenia is a Social Enterprise (CIO) run by a group of women passionate about connecting and supporting other women.
Xenia is a safe space for women from all backgrounds to connect, share, learn, befriend and build connections across differences. The sessions make learning English and connecting with other women accessible to everyone. They create a warm, nurturing and welcoming space because they believe that people, especially those who usually face barriers to education, learn better when relaxed.
In the workshop sessions, they talk about topics that matter to the women in a way that everyone can participate, regardless of their English language level. Historically, Topics have included civic engagement, health, migration, emotions, women’s rights, films, heritage and many others.
Xenia’s organising team comprises participants and staff who organise together to run workshops each week the majority give their time for free. As a true grassroots organisation, Participants’ voices are at the centre of what they do, listening and adapting continuously.
Xenia have implemented a data management system called donorfy, which was configured by two former members of the Xenia team this application is geared for charities to track charity donations, which is not the use case for Xenia.
Xenia need a database that will track attendance at sessions, some details about the women attending the sessions such as fluency in English, literacy level, phone number and country of origin.
Amy Jowett from Xenia wanted help and advice on what she should do with their current install. She went away from the day with the confidence that she needs to stop trying to get donorfy to fit their requirements, the next step is that we will help Amy and Xenia to develop a new application that meets their needs and is simple to use by everyone.
If you would like to learn more about Xenia and understand how you can help, visit https://www.xenia.org.uk/
