Melanie's Story

I am from the Congo originally and came to the UK around five years ago. I came here to live with my dad but it wasn’t great living with him and my step mum and it didn’t really work out. I became unwell and spent three months in hospital. When I came out I didn’t have anywhere else to go so the hospital referred me to Townsend House. I have been living in the hostel for around 15 months now.

When I first arrived at Townsend House I didn’t have any money. One of the Townsend House project workers, Fay, advised me to get my national insurance number and helped me to apply for the necessary benefits. I was in rent arrears for the first month or so as it took a while for my benefits to be confirmed. The Townsend House team helped me through this and it finally got sorted out so I could pay off my arrears and stay at the hostel.

They also helped me out with food. There is an agreement between the hostel and the local Trussel Trust food bank who help out many of the residents who don’t have enough money to buy food. As I didn’t have any money when I first arrived I was given food bank vouchers so I could visit the local food bank and get the food I needed.

Throughout the whole time I was still carrying on my college course. I had been undertaking BTech level 3 course in business studies before I got ill and I wanted to carry it on and finish it once I was better. I would like to go to university to do a marketing degree as I always enjoyed this side of the BTech business studies course. The lecturers used to assign us projects where they would give us a £100 budget and say set up your own business. I used to do things like buy canvas bags, decorate them and sell them on EBay to see how well I could market them and what profit I could make. I used to really enjoy this and would love to do more things like that. I would like to get my own place too. Hostel life is nice because there is always someone around to talk to but I enjoy my own company and don’t really get involved in some of the stuff that is going on at the hostel. My Key Worker Leighanne is really nice and looks out for me a lot. She always says to me “make sure you eat” and I feel like she looks after me. I do like all the activities and I recently went to the Sapphire Day at Regents Park that I really enjoyed.

I have started volunteering at Sapphire’s head office a few months ago as well. I am used to being at college and I get bored when I don’t have anything to do all day so I wanted to get out and get some more experience. One of the other residents at Townsend House also volunteers at head office, so I started coming in with her. I have been doing lots of different things such as helping redesign resident guidebooks and contacting agencies about different referral information for residents. It has been very enjoyable but what I would really like is to get a job and start saving money towards going to university. I am a bit stuck with this at the moment though as my passport has expired and I can’t afford to renew it. My visa from the Congo is ‘indefinite leave to remain’ but I really need my passport as every time I go for an interview I am told I need it to be offered a job. I would like to get UK Citizenship too but again it is too expensive for me.

What I would really like to do is find a job and get my own place so I can save and then one day go to university but it just all seems a bit difficult at the moment. I don’t talk to my dad anymore and I really miss my family back in the Congo but it just isn’t a place where there are opportunities for young people and I never felt safe there. Leighanne and the team at Townsend House are helping me work through all this and as I said before they make me feel like they are looking out for me which is nice. I plan to carry on volunteering at Sapphire’s head office and keep going for job interviews and then hopefully I can start planning my future a little more.