This blog was written by Reeja Shrestha, Omisha’s mum and campaigner with Justice for Omisha, and Patients Not Passports. You can learn more about the campaign here.
I can’t thank you enough for signing the petition and making it more than 10k signatures. Gradually, people are becoming aware of the hostile environment and how the system is lacking compassion, dignity or justice for migrants.
We are interested in meeting with other families who have been through the same thing as us and see if we can work together, support each other, and organise together against the hostile environment. If you or your child have been charged for NHS treatment, please email us at justiceforomisha@gmail.com.
This year we need you to help us grow the campaign even more – if you haven’t signed our petition, you can do it here. Will you share the petition with your friends and family?
Last year, we attended the Solidarity Knows No Borders Summit, where we met people from different backgrounds contributing to good causes and telling their own stories, coming together and empowering each other. There, we had an opportunity to talk about our cause and share our story. We also met Victor whose son Simba was charged £93,000 by Sheffield NHS Trust, and started a campaign to fight against it. He eventually won and was given refugee status. You can read his incredible winning story here.
This year, Omisha finally started her nursery after getting declined by two schools due to her health condition. No school was ready to take her responsibility as she is immunocompromised. Last year, the Teacher of Deaf referred her to a local school which also accommodates hearing deficiency children and requested the school to fund her. Now that the school board has approved to fund her, she is finally attending the Nursery that is also assisting with her hearing difficulties. We are so glad that she is enjoying every bit of her time in the nursery!
This month, our team from Patients Not Passports had a stall for the Justice for Omisha campaign on International Women’s Day at Wanstead Library in Redbridge. We thank Valerie and her team in Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party for giving us an opportunity to promote the campaign. The lawyer, Jacqueline McKenzie, spoke about Windrush and also mentioned Omisha’s campaign in her speech. We appreciate the team and their efforts to make more people aware of discrimination in the NHS towards migrants and refugees.
We are campaigning more this year and making more people aware of the hostile environment immigration system. This year we have bigger plans – we want to target the root cause of the hostile environment: the Home Office and its strict laws towards migrants and refugees. We need more people to join us in our campaign to eradicate the injustice of NHS charging towards immigrants. If you want to get more involved in the campaign, email justiceforomisha@gmail.com and we want to invite you to our next campaign meeting!
Hopefully, we will be able to achieve our set goal this year with all your support and solidarity.
Reeja
#PatientsNotPassports #JusticeForOmisha
