Home is not a place

the hardest thing i’ve ever experienced

happened to me when i was nearly 5 years

old i moved over 4

500 miles across the world from grand

cayman

a small island in the caribbean to

london

i don’t remember it very well but i do

know i felt sad and not at home

homer came was where i was brought up

it was where i spent all of my early

childhood it was the only place i really

knew

i had my wonderful friends audrey olivia

jessica and kitty and my little one

story

my first experience of being at school

the wildlife there was spectacular this

endless sandy beaches

and lush mangroves made me feel free and

wild

i also spent lots of my time playing

with the turtles at the turtle farm

watching the multicolored parrots in the

palm trees and scaring off the lazy

corners

that’s where my love of animals and

nature came from

both my parents are british so when we

first moved to england

all of my family said we’re so glad

you’re home something similar

but it didn’t feel like home my home was

where my friends were

where i knew i’d be safe the first place

we moved into was a cramped flat

where none of the furniture was stuff

i’d ever seen before

and i was told i’d live in this strange

place called england

until i was old enough to move to a

different country if i wanted to

lanton was a completely new experience

for me and it felt like the opposite of

cayman

cold warm wet dry by the sea inland

rural urban being snatched away from my

home at such a young age

has made me think about what home means

what are the things people need to feel

at home

for me home is a place where you can

relax a place where you can go where

you’ll always be welcome and safe

safety and security are not things

everyone can take for granted

although i am very lucky and come from a

fortunate background

my experience has made me think about

refugees the difficulties they

face

in december 2020 the international

refuge

rescue committee reported that one in

three refugees

held containment camps in their gene

islands were contemplating suicide

with serious mental health issues many

of these people fled their homes in

syria and afghanistan

because the area had become too violent

and too dangerous to live in

now they’re stuck in camps where the

conditions are terrible

there is no feeling of security

this must make them feel uncertain

because they don’t know if they will be

alright

they don’t have that place where they

know they can return to and will be safe

every two minutes in the uk someone

faces losing their home

exactly how many homeless people there

are in the uk is hard to know for sure

but in 2019 shelter the homeless charity

put the number at 280 000 in england

alone

and a worldwide grand total of 100

million homeless people

in 2015. every year a million people

call shelter because they are in danger

of losing their home

bad housing and fear of losing your

living space rob

your health security a good and good

chance in life

i can only imagine how not knowing where

you’re going to live would make people

feel

it is important we show kindness to

people we’re settling into their new

homes

homeless or in fear of losing their home

these interactions could be small things

such as

asking how they are or bigger things

like giving them some money

interestingly

where interestingly people who are lit

who

are from a different country that have

lived in a different place for a long

time

feel like that is where they are from

and that is where their home is

my friend who’s from france has lived in

england

her whole life and feels like she’s

british even though she’s ethnically

french

where you’re from is not defined by

ethnicity but where you feel your home

is

where you feel you’re from but not

always

wait where you feel at home is very much

to do with your experience

my aunt lucy has lived in new york for

10 years

she moved from the uk for medical

treatment in america

because she’s a rare medical condition

sometimes she’s in a lot of pain and

gets very exhausted so she can’t do a

lot

she lives in the west bridge where she

says it’s a great sense of community

which is really important to her

well-being being so far away from her

family

the pandemic has been especially hard

for her

auntie lucy says her home is in

is at the farm in leicester where my

grandparents still live

and where she was brought up

but she says she also feels at home in

new york

because it provides her with her

physical and medical needs and if those

aren’t being looked after

it can be very frightening

food is key to making us feel at home

for me

home is when i’m eating spaghetti

bolognese because it reminds me of the

fun times i had making it with my dad

loving a food isn’t just about what it

tastes like it’s also about what it

represents

the love that went into making it and

the traditions and cultures

it came from i live in london where you

can eat from almost every country in the

world

close to my house is a kurdish

restaurant called nandin

the dishes it serves come from when

perry one of the owners

led her home in iraqi kurdistan

because it was attacked by saddam

hussein’s forces

perry traveled from village to village

looking for safety

and collected regional recipes as she

went

perry moved to london with her husband

in 1995 and today she and her family

serve up all the recipes she collected

perry has brought some of

kurdistan with her and the food she

cooks so it’s a combination of things

food friendship family a neighborhood

that gradually made england feel like my

home this means

whenever we’ve moved house here which we

have done 11 times

i’ve never really been bothered by it

the house or flat i was living in wasn’t

the important thing

feeling at home was home can also be

where you

keep belongings that are special to you

they don’t have to be valuable

home is where my stuffed rabbits are

because i’ve had them for so long

and been through so much of them i also

love my books

because they remind me of all the

fantasy adventures i’ve been on

home is that place you know you can go

the place you can settle down in the

place to kick off your shoes

your home is like your foundation

without it you’re unstable

and you don’t have the anchor you need

to support you

you can live in a small flat or a

mansion but home isn’t about that

home is not a place it’s a feeling