Introducing orienteering to asylum-seeker and refugee communities

How we got involved

Many asylum seekers and refugees were involved with sport in their home countries, hence, orienteering is a particularly easy sport to take part inin the UK.

Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity (DRS)

I’ve been involved with Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity (DRS) for a while and I’ve signposted many asylum seekers to their local Parkrun, helping them to register and screenshot their barcode. I’ve also taken large groups on sculpture trails with maps and taken part in the popular Beat the Streets (BtS) game when it came to Derby for six weeks in 2021.

I registered my own club (Derwent Valley Orienteers) for BtS, and then thought that our asylum-seeker volunteers at Derbyshire Refugee Solidarity (DRS) would enjoy it. The game ran over six weeks, and I took part weekly on Thursday mornings with a group of 4–10 asylum-seeker volunteers, visiting local parks and urban neighbourhoods to find some of the 261 Beatboxes in the city. Once shown what to do, the volunteers got extra points during the week. I made lasting friendships with people in the group. DRS got 2^nd place in the Community Groups category, and an Egyptian asylum seeker won the Individual category, ahead of some 28,000 locals! With the prize vouchers, DRS was able to purchase table football games for the nearby asylum seeker hostel.

The DRS meeting place is on one of our Urban maps, and  I have a 6-control route round the building that I have used several times with pin-punch controls. I introduced this with some map and navigational English vocabulary, and now know the 4 points of the compass in Arabic! I’ve taken a group from DRS on a permanent course, stopping half way round to feed the ducks, and afterwards I’ve given out free run vouchers for DVO’s parks series. One asylum seeker from Yemen told me the maps reminded him of hiking back in his home country.

Below left to right: Beat the Streets is an initiative to get people walking and cycling. It’s an addictive and free activity that rotates around UK towns and cities – and a great introduction to map-reading! Second photo shows how a simple pin-punching course is very quick to set up outside, and the learners were able to collect the controls afterwards. SI equipment was introduced indoors in a Dibber Relay.

Upbeat Communities

The second charity I’ve worked with is Upbeat Communities, who have statutory (council-funded) duties in the refugee settlement sector. They invited me to run an Easter Holiday two hour session for Upbeat Kids, which was great fun!

Mindful that orienteering is not at the top of the new arrivals’ priority list, I’ve focused the sessions on finding places on the OS map of Derby, looking at a globe of the world together with a 5 x 5 Maze and a Dibber Relay. Their church hall HQ has a small garden, large enough for the maze and relay. 

Above: Upbeat Kids navigation session (anonymised photo collage by Upbeat staff)

The session was attended by 20 children aged 7–11 from Syria, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Congo, Sudan and Iran. Ideas for further sessions include ‘Gym Maps’ (using different shaped furniture in the hall and finding the letters for your course), jigsaw relays and a trip to a local POC.

Louise Satherley, Equality, Inclusion and Diversity Officer from British Orienteering, joined me at an Upbeat Women’s session, where we also ran the Dibber Relay. It was too wet for the Maze that day, but we ran two stations of UK-4-countries-activities (useful background for asylum seekers) and two stations of OS maps questions and an O map custom-made 48-piece jigsaw puzzle for a forthcoming event. Upbeat had arranged a creche, because most of the women attending had young children. We gave out free runs at parks flyers and await results.

Louise said: “The work Sal and Derwent Valley Orienteers (DVO) are doing is making a huge difference to these individual. While it may not attract a massive influx of members to the club it certainly helps ensure our wonderfully accessible sport is truly inclusive to all.”

Below: This 48-piece jigsaw (cost £22)  is ideal for anyone not use to looking at an orienteering map.

Looking to the future

I have plans to do sessions with different faith groups (UK residents) through my role as an Ambassador for MoveMoreDerby, which is Derby City Council’s sports networking and anti-obesity group. This route is more likely to attract regular orienteers, and recently we had a Muslim Scout group at one of our park’s events. Seventeen boys had fun on our 3.7km Medium course, with not too many mis-punches. We acoomodated the girls in a separate group.

One thing that could be improved next year is that DVO’s opening parks event was during Ramadan, which this year finished on 21 April. Fasting during the 15 or so hours of daylight is not compatible with orienteering, and our first parks event was in a very ethnically diverse part of Derby. Ramadan moves slightly each year, so this should be noted for events in Muslim neighbourhoods where you are hoping for local participation. 

An asylum seeker from Tunisia approached us while we were putting up the tent for our second Parks Serie event. He helped put out signs, then a DVO helper took him round part of the Short course with a dibber, explaining the map in French. As an experienced runner, he was keen to try Long (5.7km), set off with a keen M40s in his sights, was dropped, and then found by an older DVO volunteer who completed the course with him.

You can learn more about Derwent Valley Orienteers by visiting their website.