Akwaaba Kids: migrant children in Hackney on what makes their community strong

Akwaaba is a Hackney-based social centre for migrants. We offer a space for rest, play, learning and mutual support. Akwaaba is for all migrants regardless of immigration status, ‘race’, religion, country of origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.

Our aim is to build community and foster care, cooperation and solidarity. As a community, we try to make decisions collectively and give all members an equal say in how the social centre is run.

Akwaaba Kids welcomes children of all ages and we look after 40+ young people each week. While parents and carers take part in workshops and classes, volunteer at the centre or just enjoy a break, we run free fun and engaging activities for children including arts and crafts, dance workshops, martial arts, and skateboarding.

Many Akwaaba families face severe hardship due to the 'hostile environment' and austerity. 

On January 28, the Akwaaba Kids team ran a photography session for the children, using Polaroid instant cameras in our regular community space at Stoke Newington School in North East London. 

We asked the young people to take photos that encapsulated what they thought made Akwaaba Kids a strong community. The children also collected answers to the question, ‘What makes a strong community?’ from each other, the volunteers, and the adult Akwaaba members.

By handing the reins over to the young people, we were able to present their impressions of the Akwaaba community first hand, while giving the young people the agency to tell their own story.  

This visual essay is a unique look into what we do at Akwaaba Kids, who we support, and what makes our community strong. We are always a child centred community, and want to give children the space to be children, despite their circumstances and the challenges they face as migrants.

This project engages with the theme of Civic Strength by demonstrating the joy, fun and safety that comes with being part of a strong community. By bringing people from all over the world with experiences of migration together, Akwaaba Kids provides social support and a chance to build important relationships in a new country.

Through this project we gave the children the tools and space to tell the story of our community, capturing the things that make it strong; the people that are part of it.