by: Nazafarin, an Iranian refugee in the UK
I was a teacher in Iran and my husband was a mechanical engineer. I had opinions about women’s freedom and unfortunately the government didn’t like it so I left my country to avoid being in prison for the rest of my life.
When I left Iran I was one month pregnant and really scared of being alone in a new country with a different culture.
Thankfully British people were very good to me but I still felt lonely without my husband.
We tried to stay in touch via the internet but it wasn’t enough and I was pregnant, with no one in a new country. Both of us suffered a lot because we wanted to plan for our baby but couldn’t do anything via the internet. My husband couldn’t even feel the movement of the baby.
My baby got bigger and I got permission to stay in the UK. When I was 36 weeks pregnant my husband got permission to join me but with the high cost of travel it was impossible for him to come.
Thankfully the Red Cross put me in contact with Together Now and it was like a dream because they sorted everything out in less than one week. I was anxious about my husband travelling because he doesn’t know much English and I was 37 weeks pregnant so it was difficult to travel to London to meet him and bring him to my city. Together Now* were quick and helpful and even provided instructions with the coach booking so he didn’t confused.
Now he is with me and we are really happy because we are together and can share the experience of having our first baby.
In the future we are going to improve our English and develop our skills.
We want to be good citizens of the UK because they’ve helped us in very hard times. We appreciate the people that have helped Together Now help us.
*Note from Amy at Together Now: This case was done with a flight donated by Miles4Migrants. Through this partnership we were able to have a flight for Nazafarin’s husband booked the day after we first received the enquiry. After the original flight was cancelled due to poor weather conditions they were immediately looking into how to get him on the next one available. We’d like to thank their donor for making this possible.