Paul Sathianesan

Paul Sathianesan was born in Sri Lanka and is Tamil; he came to London in 1985. He talks about his work as a local councillor in Newham and how he thinks the awards he has won demonstrate how refugees can contribute.

Listen to Paul (mp3, 557kb)

Transcript

'I was given a national award last December, for bravery in, ‘Taking a Stand’ for anti-social behaviour. It’s not for me, it is for the community.  Community is seeing me as a person who is really playing a role, and a person who is a real community leader, or person who is a real mouthpiece for them. A voice for the voiceless…

'And also I was given an honorary degree by the University of East London, that was a real shock at the time for me, because I never expected that I would… Even that I said, this award is not for me. This award is for the people, those who gave me the opportunity to serve them. And the second category, the people, those who are with me, who prayed for me, who supported me, who were there for me…

'I want to see this go into the history for the community, as seeing how we are being labelled wrongly, or seen as burden to a state, or burden to the system. But they fail to understand, not everyone, there are people who recognise our service, our contributions. So I want to see the wider community try to understand and recognise.

'We also, we are humans. We also gone through hardship, we also gone through the torture, we are also gone through the wars, we also had the difficult times. Even though, we try to push that to a side and play a role for the benefit of the wider community, for the benefit of the host community, to give something back.'

Copyright Evelyn Oldfield Unit