PHIL MAXWELL

I’ve been very fortunate in my life to meet some extraordinary people. One of them is Rossana Leal who I met first in the East End of London in 2011. At the time I was very ill and Rosanna and Hazuan Hashim set about organising a retrospective exhibition of my photography at the Bishopsgate Institute. It was never said at the time but we all thought it could be my last exhibition. It must have been difficult for Rosanna to work with me as the prescribed drugs I was taking at the time caused my behaviour to be eratic (to put it mildly). Nevertheless Rosanna and Haz ensured the exhibition happened (with help from Rosanna’s partner Andrew Grainger). Maggie Pinhorn the dynamic founder of Photomonth arranged for the exhibition to open Photomonth in 2011.

Rossana has supported a number of artists and I was pleased to meet her recently in Hastings where she now lives. Rossana and her family fled Chile in 1976 when she was nine years old after her father was detained by the Pinochet regime. She’s never forgotten her escape from fascism and the welcome and support she received from the Scottish mining community. The village she moved to originally welcomed her family with a party, bagpipes, toys for the children and food. She told me “When I moved to Hastings I remembered I was a refugee and how my family depended on the solidarity of the community we escaped too. There are many refugees in Hastings who need empowerment.”

Rossanna is a woman who gets things done. Moved by the plight of Syrians arriving in Europe, she set up a Buddy Scheme for refugees in Hastings. Wanting to recreate the welcoming environment she had experienced, Rossana pairs East Sussex locals with refugees, and together they share meals, visit local sites and festivals, run sewing groups, driving lessons and children’s activities. Rossana’s volunteer work has created a community of more than a hundred people who are forming new friendships and providing hope, as refugees build a new life in the UK.

With the Refugee Buddy Project, Rossana is enacting her vision of pushing back and transforming the hostile environment for migrants and refugees in the UK.  In Rossana’s own words, “When future generations see what was happening in the UK at this time, they will ask did you resist or did you collaborate?”

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives and protecting the rights of refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. As a child Rossana was resettled by the UNHCR from Argentina.

It is no surprise that Rossanna Leal is the UNHCR 2019 ‘Woman Of The Year’!

Rossanna Leal. Mixed media on paper (38 x 27cm).

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