A PROJECT which helps asylum seekers and refugees find their feet in Newport needs generous partners to help it meet demand.

Bethel Community Church, in Stow Hill, runs The Sanctuary initiative from its Gap Centre - featuring English classes, social evenings, meals and a coffee shop drop-in for its 150 weekly adult users and their children.

However, due to a shortfall in funding, women with pre-school children are now being turned away from English lessons because of a lack of cash for crucial creche places.

Project manager Sarah Croft said: "This project is about social inclusion and rebuilding a sense of community, place and friendships, and English classes are an important part of that.

"In the past, Oxfam had helped us fund the mobile creche, provided by Newport Social Enterprise, but that money is no longer available so although we have space in the classes, we don't have space in the creche.

"Individuals, businesses or community groups willing to contribute as a monthly partner would directly fund the creche and make a huge difference."

The project went live in 2008 after Bethel Community Church members Jane and Mark Seymour decided to do more to help a group of Christian Eritreans who had fled their homeland due to religious persecution and were now attending services.

Since then, funding allowed Mrs Croft to become project manager in 2011 and asylum seekers and refugees fleeing other countries such as Sudan, Iran, Libya, Iraq and Syria have also received practical and emotional support.

Currently 20 volunteers work across the Sanctuary's diary of activities, and half of them are asylum seekers themselves.

Last month, The Argus revealed that Newport was ranked eighth in the UK for the proportional number of asylum seekers.

A study by the Home Office showed asylum seekers account for one person per 319 in the city, meaning there are about 456 currently living in Newport.

Mrs Croft said: "I feel much happier talking to people about what I do now than I did a year ago, when people seemed more negative about refugees.

"But now, thanks to greater media coverage of the humanitarian crisis going on in the Middle East, there seems to be more compassion and the public have a more positive attitude to refugees and are more willing to help.

"Since I started volunteering here in 2009, I have never had a bad experience of working with refugees and asylum seekers. They are only grateful for the help you give and for the support provided by us and the UK as a whole.

"They are polite and want to work and contribute - and not be on benefits."

The vast majority of visitors to the Sanctuary are waiting for a decision on their asylum application, with waiting times sometimes passing three years.

Mrs Croft added: "A common misconception about these people is that they left their homes to come here for a better life, but this is not true.

"I have met people who had a very high standard of life - bank managers, highly qualified academics - who were forced to flee for their lives and have arrived here with no job prospects.

"Yes, there are those who have left countries with really bad human rights records like Eritrea, and arguably they do now have a better life, but that is not true for all.

"The people I meet teach me to keep my life in perspective, to not worry as much - my problems pale into insignificance compared to theirs. They make me appreciate what I have, especially family as in many cases they have been separated from theirs."

To become a partner of The Sanctuary, contact Mrs Croft on 01633 212327 or sanctuary@bethelnewport.co.uk.