Saeed Nassar

Saeed Nasser 

I was born in Yemen, and I came to the UK at the age of 14. My formative years growing up were spent in Yemen, and then my teenage years into adulthood were spent in Sandwell. Since I've been in the UK, I have been living in Cradley Heath and working in West Bromwich.

It was quite a culture shock when I came over because I come from a village. The first thing that kind of struck me was the weather because I arrived in October, and it was quite cold. Coming out of the airport was almost like I was walking into a fridge as it was that cold. I had to go through a lot of adjustments in terms of learning a new language etc. I am visually impaired and therefore adjusting to a new environment was difficult and required a lot of patience and determination. Growing up in a village I lived an independent life as a child with the support of my parents, I enjoyed playing, walking around the village and listening to the life experiences of the elders and learning from them. Adapting to a new environment was very challenging. However, I think when you have challenges, you tend to learn more about yourself, and your capacity, to develop and learn, to be resilient and adapt really well.

One motivation to come here was that I was losing my sight at an early age. My father wanted to explore treatments for me. Britain at that time was at the forefront of the treatment of eye conditions. The idea originally was for me to have treatments in the UK for my eye condition and then return to Yemen. However, the doctors explained that there was no treatment for me at that time, and there was nothing that they could do to make my condition get better.

My uncle was already here in the UK, and he was an educationalist. He loved education as a way forward for everybody. He encouraged me and supported me. He said, “the best thing you can do is to have a good education and you can help yourself and help others. You have a lot to give, but the only way you can give that is through education.” I was feeling homesick after being in the UK for one year, during this time I was thinking “I'll go back to visit my mum and stay in Yemen”. I always wanted to go back when I was young because I was missing my mom, my brothers and my grandmother. I continued to stay in the UK year after year and it was amazing because then England became my home. I stayed here with my uncle and my aunt, they looked after me and brought me up as if I was their own child. My uncle, God bless his soul, he's passed away now but my aunt is still with us.

I qualified as an interpreter and then a few years later I retrained and qualified as a psychotherapist. I had an interest in psychology from an early age. That's why I started my work in the community in Sandwell. Qualifying as a psychotherapist gave me another way to help the community and help others, especially around mental health. I was able to do a lot of work and help people during the isolation of the pandemic. We did a lot of mental health sessions with the community over weekends specifically with the public, the sessions were carried out over the weekends as the majority of people were working. As well as the group for men, we had a group for women and young people. During that time there were a lot of bereavement cases because of COVID. A lot of people lost loved ones and could not be with their loved ones as they took their last breath and were leaving this world. This was traumatic for the family and friends of the deceased. Therefore, grief became a significant factor, we assisted people to overcome grief and to overcome loneliness and isolation. Many people suffered from anxiety and depression because of the pandemic. However, I also think many people also experience trauma because of a variety of factors. ​

The pandemic highlighted many things. As well as highlighting the many inequalities, difficulties and challenges, it also highlighted that there is a lot of goodness in the community and in our society as people came together to help one another and support one another. This was very encouraging and gave me a kind of confidence and faith in humanity. Communities can come together to help one another and highlight the good things that we all share as human beings.

In the community we work with, people are very independent until they start needing services because of old age or disabilities or family breakdown. The work is about signposting for people to make sure they access the right services. In the centre, we act as a link between the service providers and the community. There are so many things I can help with, but I think my way is facilitating communication because often the English language is a struggle for some people. The interpreting and translation are often the links between the person, the client and the service provider.

Because I had to learn English as a second language, I have empathy with people who struggle with the language because I knew how much I struggled as a child when I wasn’t very fluent in English. I had to learn sometimes that by not being able to express yourself or speak the language, people might think that you are not intelligent. It is important to allow people’s personalities to come through by helping them to express themselves and their needs. This empowering for them also. I feel very grateful and privileged that I can help as I was in a similar position where I needed the support of others growing up. I feel a sense of duty to help others to get the best support for themselves so they can live a good life and fulfil their potential.

I feel lots of people have so much to give. Often, it’s about removing the barriers that hinder people from allowing their potential to come to the surface. We would become a richer society because then we are tapping into the richness of people with their experiences and the contribution that they can make to their own families, their community and the wider society.

I think all of us regardless of our background, culture or religion face challenges in life. Whether this is due to a breakdown in relationships, loss of employment or emotionally in terms of loss and bereavement/ traumas that people go through. These are life-changing experiences. For me, resilience is being able to bounce back from adversity and overcome any obstacles that get in your way by having a sense of renewal and not just being consumed by the challenge, but to see beyond the challenge. We can do this by utilising our inner resources, and our capacity to adapt and change, whilst having the ability to see beyond the difficulty and find solutions and resolutions. It’s about being able to utilise the resources that we all have, whether they happen to be within ourselves or in our community, our society, our friends, or our family, to help us to cope better.

I am a person of faith. Faith plays a major part in my life in terms of giving me a sense of purpose. Having a purpose in life is enriching and gives you a sense of focus. Part of my purpose is to be of assistance to others by making myself available to listen to and support others. It’s being able to demonstrate mercy and kindness as it is informed through our faith. To be able to reach out to others and try and forge pathways and connections with people regardless of their background.

For me, community is about helping those who are vulnerable in society and supporting them and looking after them and showing care, compassion and mercy. Community is about people sharing memories of the things they hold dear to themselves. I believe communication is important, it’s about having conversations and talking to one another and coming together to recognise and celebrate the things we have in common. A community for me is about safety. When we feel safe, then we bring out the best of ourselves. This was crystallised very well in the pandemic. I think the common goal was to keep everyone safe, to look after the vulnerable, and to help each other. I think it's important that we take that forward and make sure that this is used as a stepping stone to move forward after the pandemic.

I am a very optimistic person. I always look to the positives in life. What gives me hope is that all of us can work together and build on things that we have been through in the past and maybe learn from the experience. A lot of young people demonstrated lots of goodness during the pandemic. There were young people who were giving food, looking after the elderly, and looking after their neighbours.