Steve Wells - former Chair of Trustees

What changed things for Steve was the now-famous picture of the corpse of a 3-year-old Syrian boy, face down, drowned on a Turkish beach.  Like millions across the world, Steve could not stop thinking about the image, and the story behind it. 

He could not have known where that one shocking picture would lead him for the next decade. However at the time, he and his wife Linda knew that doing nothing was not an option. 

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They had already heard about a new charity based locally (Refugees at Home) which matched people with a spare room with refugees needing accommodation.

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“And being empty nesters, with the kids all moved away, we had a spare room and so we got in touch….So to cut a long story short I was told we were going to be taking in a Syrian man,  a neurosurgeon, who was married to a consultant obstetrician with three children.”

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The family had fled their home as bombs were flying down from the Syrian army and had made it to Turkey, where Karim had left his wife and children with distant relatives.

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Karim would stay with Steve and Linda Wells for three months while they helped him bring his family to the UK. Clearly all of them living in the Wells’ home was not ideal and a more permanent solution was needed. 

“I had been told there was a refugee support organisation in its formation in Elmbridge” remembers Steve. “I met up with (soon to be director of Elmbridge CAN) Jeannie and a couple of others.” 

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The first thing they did was to organise a meeting in collaboration with the local council.
You can read Jeannie’s story about how Elmbridge CAN was formed here.

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“I took Karim to the launch meeting at the Civic Centre (in Esher), and it was wonderful – the atmosphere, the passion of the people there. It was great for Karim to feel that sense of support, because of course, he’d left his family in Turkey.”  

A key moment for Steve and Linda around this time, was when Steve found Karim in distress one morning in the kitchen. 

“He had just learned that his 4-year-old boy was being bullied in Turkey for being an Arab and he felt powerless to do anything about it.  

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It was a reminder to me of the way in which those bonds (of family) are fractured and stressed.  This really was a key moment for me because at that stage, I thought, ‘I am going to stop at nothing to get them reunited.’”

Eventually, after many ups and downs, coupled with hard work and tenacity, Steve and Elmbridge CAN managed to reunite the family and get them housed in more permanent accommodation. 

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As this was happening, Steve appreciated that Karim’s was only one family and that there were many, many others in similar situations.

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Funding for Elmbridge CAN was coming in through local contacts and donations, particularly in Jeannie’s home community of East Molesey and Steve’s of Claygate and their vicinities. These two groups were vibrant in the early days of Elmbridge CAN. 

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In 2018 Elmbridge CAN was officially recognised by the Charity Commission and they now had the all-important Charity number. This meant they could work through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify suitable families for placement locally.

  
Apart from local support, Elmbridge CAN needed to liaise with Elmbridge Borough Council. This was an important learning curve, for both parties. 

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“Initially the local Council were sceptical, but the relationship grew”, recalls Steve .

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“They were a bit reluctant because it was way out of their former remit. I mean, we’re talking about people from the other side of the world from a conflict zone, when actually the council’s main expertise is in local issues and a very intractable housing problem which understandably they were concerned about”.  

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However, so successful was their relationship that Elmbridge Council started to fund some of Elmbridge CAN’s support work as the charity grew. A new and lasting working relationship had germinated and was growing. 

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Over the decade there have been many changes to the operating environment for Elmbridge CAN, but no one could have anticipated the sudden influx of refugees when, in August 2021, the Taliban regime took over Afghanistan.

Again, the TV was showing footage which viewers would never forget, such as the chaotic horrors of Kabul airport with people hanging off a US aircraft as it taxied to take off. 

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Almost overnight  Elmbridge CAN’s workload increased. Local people, many with no interest in international politics, were responding by offering help and digging into their pockets for families in distress. The crisis also brought in new volunteers which meant that the charity had to employ more staff to support them, which in turn needed more funds. But Elmbridge CAN and its supporters responded and progressed. 

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Then just a few months later, in February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. Another international crisis, and some 25,000 refugees heading to the UK.  Again, Elmbridge CAN coped with the influx and the local community responded positively. 

Although very strictly and openly a non-faith based organisation, Elmbridge CAN has often turned to churches and other faith and community groups to appeal for funds. Given that the world has changed a lot since 2016, has Steve ever encountered a hostile reception?

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“No, never..  I remember on one occasion I was with Karim at a Church of England church in Weybridge: me -  a well-known atheist and Karim - a Muslim. Talking from the pulpit, I thought this is really quite bizarre. But the welcome there was huge and they were keen to contribute, just as all the churches have been. So that Christian notion of hospitality - that we welcome the stranger - has shone through.  

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Two years ago, Steve decided that it was time to step down as Chair of the board of Trustees. Perhaps surprisingly, it was not a difficult decision. He felt that the organisation had built up a strong momentum. Initially it was run on volunteer power only, and now it had paid staff including a director job share. The time had come to hand over to the next generation.

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So how confident is Steve about the next ten years for the organisation?

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“Utterly unpredictable on one level because the world is so dangerous. Heaven knows what is going to happen in the world. But the one thing I am confident of is that the local community will still be there to accommodate people fleeing terror...“It can’t be that Elmbridge is different from the rest of the country. The signs are beginning to come through, that people are questioning what it is to be human... Our tendency is to be sympathetic towards one another and to be empathetic. Diversity is something to be celebrated … we have a common humanity that makes us different from everything else on the planet.”