Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I have been working at Citizens Advice since May 2008. In that time, I have seen the positive effect our advice has on the people we advise. We help our clients to claim benefits, to deal with chronic debt, negotiate relationship breakdowns, avoid eviction - the list is endless. I feel very proud to be part of an organisation where everyone - volunteers and paid staff - work so hard to help people in our community.

I enjoyed reading some of the poems by Benjamin Zephaniah while covering diversity in a recent training course. I revisited this poem after the Brexit vote and news of racially-motivated hate crimes. Citizens Advice is a reporting centre for hate crime, so I hope you will find the poem relevant to our work!

The British (serves 60 million)
Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.

Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese.
Then take a blend of Somalians, Sri Lankans, Nigerians
And Pakistanis,
Combine with some Guyanese
And turn up the heat.
Sprinkle some fresh Indians, Malaysians, Bosnians,
Iraqis and Bangladeshis together with some
Afghans, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese
And Palestinians
Then add to the melting pot.
Leave the ingredients to simmer.
As they mix and blend allow their languages to flourish
Binding them together with English.
Allow time to be cool.
Add some unity, understanding, and respect for the future,
Serve with justice
And enjoy.
Note: All the ingredients are equally important. Treating one ingredient better than another will leave a bitter unpleasant taste.

Warning: An unequal spread of justice will damage the people and cause pain. Give justice and equality to all.

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