Bridges for Communities has remained up and running during the Covid-19 pandemic, acting within the Government guidelines.

Most of our programmes have been able to go online / over the phone, including b.friend, RefuLingua and Middle East b.friend. Volunteers and staff are continuing to provide support to those who are isolated, and some new initiatives have begun in response to the crisis and to the Black Lives Matter movement including a new Walk With Me project, Face Masks produced by our Craft Collective, and a potential schools linking project. Please see below for more details! 

'Walk with Me' is a new project designed to promote exercise and wellbeing among refugees and asylum seekers by facilitating one-to-one or group walks. 

For people who would like a one-to-one walk, they are partnered with a volunteer who will walk with them once a week for 20-30 minutes. 

Ladies group walks for asylum seekers and refugees:

Saturdays  - Ladies Harbourside Walk – meet at Cascade steps, BS1 4XJ,  4pm. Children welcome but must be supervised by parent / carer at all times.

Sundays – Ladies Eastville Park Walk – meet opposite the Shell Garage, BS5 6XA, 4pm. Children welcome but must be supervised by parent / carer at all times. 

Click on 'Details' for more information! 

If you would like to buy a face mask made by our Craft Collective, and give one away for free to someone in need, click here! 

We are also looking for motivated individuals in Bristol to volunteer a few hours of their time each week to sew face masks for members of the public and for charitable causes. Our women’s Craft Collective, which normally brings together women from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds each week, are taking up the challenge and would love you to join them.

Please contact Angie asap at if you, or someone you know, might be interested in helping!

8 classes taught on WhatsApp video.

This course is suitable for complete beginners!

8 classes taught on Zoom. 

This course is suitable for anyone who has already taken the beginner plus course with Refulingua, or anyone else who has a basic foundation in vocabulary and is beginning to form verbal sentences in present tense.

(During this course we will cover the present and past tenses)

8 classes taught on Zoom.

This course is for anyone who would like to learn the Arabic alphabet and begin to recognise the letter forms when they appear  at the beginning, middle and end of a word.

Assignments will be given from the book A Gateway to Arabic, so it will be necessary to purchase this book to accompany the course.

https://www.gatewaytoarabic.com/gateway-to-arabic-book-1.html

8 classes taught on Zoom.

This course is suitable for anyone who has already taken the beginner course with Refulingua or who can very briefly introduce themselves in Arabic.

8 classes taught on Zoom.

This course is suitable for complete beginners!

We are delighted to be partnering with the Jo Cox Foundation to explore how we can overcome isolation and loneliness in this season, and discover ways of coming in the opposite spirit with kindness, connection and friendship. We'll be hearing from Kim Leadbeater, Jo Cox's sister and ambassador to the Jo Cox Foundation, and we'll also be seeing how friendships are flourishing across cultures in Bristol.