Could you live without access to your car, the bus or even a bicycle?
Imagine if you were only able to travel to places within walking distance. Would that limit what you could do with your life? A recent discussion in the Hope English School office made us all realise that if we couldn’t use our cars, or take the bus, or even hop on our bikes, our lives would look very different and what we were able to do would be hugely affected.
This is the reality for many of our students, they don’t have access to any form of transport for one reason - cost. Depending on where they are housed, a person seeking asylum can expect to receive just £49.18 per person, per week to pay for all food, clothing, toiletries and travel or £8.86 per person, per week if their accommodation provides their meals. A weekly bus ticket in Sheffield costs £21.20. With a day ticket costing £5.60. This makes the use of bus travel prohibitive to most of the people we work with, as they would need to sacrifice something else (such as food or clothing) if they wanted to travel somewhere beyond walking distance. Even using a bicycle is not an option for many, as the high cost of buying the bike in the first place is just too great a hurdle, it also excludes anyone with limited mobility.
Our classes are free, however the students have to get to us in order to attend them, and that is where the problem lies. The high price of bus travel means that many just don’t have the means to get to us, even if they really want to learn English! Over the last few months we have received various grants which have allowed us to reimburse our students for their travel costs. This has had a profound impact, not just on the number able to attend, but on the regularity of them being able to come. The more often a student is able to attend our classes (with some also opting to attend multiple classes) the quicker they are likely to see improved progress in their language learning, not to mention the huge benefits to their emotional and social health.
Ideally we would have a class in every community where our students live, so that they could walk to us, but this just isn’t currently possible, so being able to say to students “Come! Don’t worry about the bus fare!” has been such a wonderful gift to be able to give them. It also means that any students with mobility needs have been able to attend too.
The sad news is that the money set aside for student travel has almost all gone and we are at a point where we soon wont be able to offer to cover student travel expenses, which is why we have launched our ‘Week Without Wheels’ campaign!
We would love you to join us as we try to live for a week without using any wheels - you can only travel by foot. Then, donate the money you have saved from not using your car or the bus, to us to allow us to continue to support students to travel to our classes.
Too hard? We hear you! It costs us £5.60 to pay for a student to travel to one of our classes, why not commit to giving £5.60 a week to ensure that those who want to come are able to.
Our lives are at a point where suddenly giving up our cars may be very difficult, we might have children or other people in our lives who rely on us to get them to places. If you think you can take the challenge please do - and let us know how you get on! But for many we appreciate that this is a really hard challenge and so we encourage you to donate the cost of the bus fare to us instead. Just £5.60 for as long as you can, whether that’s just once, for a month or indefinitely.
Click the button below to make your donation. Thank you.