Black and minority citizens receive anti-attack alarms

Derry City and Strabane District Council PCSP manager Dermot Harrigan pictured with from left, Shivaranjani Tetali, Agnieszka Luczak from the Migrant Centre NI, Karen Tracey, Good Relations team, Karen Scrivens, Active Citizens Engaged, John McCartney, Loughs Agency, facilitator and Jyoti Suri, during a Good Relations Self Protection training event at the Loughs Agency. Picture Martin McKeown. Inpresspics.com. 22.09.15

The dismaying acknowledgment was made as twenty members of the North West Black and Minority Ethnic Forum received personal protection training and were given anti-attack alarms.

The training provided helpful tips for protection at home and whilst out and about and was delivered free of charge by John McCartney, Director of Conservation and Protection at the Loughs Agency.

Speaking after the training one of the participants expressed their gratitude to the Loughs Agency, the Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) and the Council Good Relations Team saying: “I am really grateful to have been given the opportunity to take part in this training.

“As a member of an ethnic community living here in Northern Ireland there are times when I have felt unsafe, especially when I hear about attacks on ethnic minorities in other parts of the region.

“I now have more confidence to overcome that fear at home and when I am out.”

The twenty participants who took part received their own personal alarm, donated by the Council’s PCSP.

The NW BME Forum is facilitated by the Council’s Good Relations Department. It was established in December 2013 as a collective of over 20 BME Groups across Derry City and Strabane District. The group’s mission is to be a ‘Voice for Equality and Diversity’ and its main aim is to build the capacity of the BME sector and to challenge racism by building positive relationships between different ethnic communities themselves and between ethnic communities and others.

If you are interested in the work of the Forum or in becoming a member please contact Jacqueline Parkington, Council Good Relations Department on 028 71 253253 [email protected]