Why Fly With Me?

An epic kite-flying festival in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Fly With Me calls on the world to #RememberAfghanistan and to come together to celebrate and preserve Afghan culture - a culture that is once again under threat.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN AFGHANISTAN NOW?

Afghanistan is experiencing one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in the world. More than 23 million people - over half the population - face acute hunger. 97% of Afghanistan's population are now experiencing or on the cusp of living in poverty. 

The economy is in crisis: foreign aid has been withdrawn, salaries cannot be paid, there is an acute lack of access to medical supplies and livelihood opportunities. 

The rights of women and girls in particular are being eroded every day - older girls are forbidden to access education, women restricted from most employment, and women must now cover their faces in public and should be accompanied by a male relative at all times outside the home.

WHY ARE WE FLYING KITES AS A RESPONSE TO THIS?

Kite flying is one of the world’s earliest art forms - there are depictions of kites in cave paintings in Indonesia which are 40,000 years old. In Afghanistan, kites occupy a unique space between national art form and national sport. For 800 years, they have been seen as a universal symbol of expression, skill and cultural pride.

But the last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, kites were banned - along with music, free journalism, theatre and dancing. With the Taliban returning to power in 2021, freedom of expression is under attack yet again.

By making and flying kites in the Afghan tradition, led by Afghans who have made new lives in Europe, and open to all, we will be standing in solidarity with Afghans in the latest affront to their freedom.

WHAT HAS THE UK GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE BEEN?

Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul, was captured by the Taliban on 15 August 2021. In the aftermath of the invasion, amidst a huge show of compassion from the British public, the UK government evacuated over 16,000 people from the country, many of whom worked for the UK in Afghanistan, and committed to resettling a further 5,000 in the following year. 

12 months on, both resettlement schemes set up by the government are completely dysfunctional, there are no safe routes available for Afghans, and people fleeing the Taliban and arriving to the UK by boat are now being threatened  with deportation to Rwanda. The UK’s current asylum system has:

• Slashed number of Afghans allowed into UK

• Stalled the Afghan Resettlement scheme

• Kept 12,000 Afghan refugees in the UK in segregated temporary accommodation

Recently, public and government attention has rightly been given to Ukraine and support is being provided to Ukrainian refugees. At Fly With Me, we call for this same support and welcome to be extended to all people seeking safety in the UK, including those from Afghanistan.

On 20th August 2022, thousands of people across the country will raise their kites and  be part of a movement to give Afghan refugees the welcome they deserve. We want this call for compassion mirrored in the way we treat people in our asylum system.

TAKE ACTION

We believe, like most people in the UK, that whatever your background or postcode, religion or race, we all deserve to live peacefully and free from harm. If you agree, will you take action to support Afghan refugees?

Our Events: Kite Making Workshops

We ​run kite making workshops in festival​s and events. ​We don't charge participants a fee but donations are welcome to cover the cost of materials, parts, fixings, tools and transportation. Any profit from the event will be spent to help the poorest in AfghanistanKites are made of simplest of tools and material. Its simply stalks of bamboo and sheets of tissue paper using scissors to cut and trim the bamboo into flexible spars for the frames; decorate the tissue paper; and a bowl of glue to put it all together. Kite flying is a craft part science and part art. The key to excellence depends on a combination of factors, both empirical and ineffable: the flexibility and balance of the kites' frames, the structure and robustness of kite skin, the quality of the string, the shape and angle of the spars, the bridling and balance of shape, but most importantly the passion of the fliers to feel the wind and to the vicissitudes of the wind.


The art of kite flying is one whose roots extend back to the ancient times. Kite running is a past time in many cultures. I grew up in Kabul where the art is practiced by an array of all ages. The skies above Kabul are decorated each day with colourful kites fluttering in the wind. The joy of kite flying has left me with vivid memories of running in the dusty streets leaping on the roof tops with other boys while trying to hide from the scorching sun of Kabul. Come along, I cannot promise the sun or roof bouncing but lets have a try at having fun.

Why Refugee Sponsorship

The world is experiencing its most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 21m people fleeing their country of origin, and over 34,000 people displaced each day. 1.3m refugees have so far arrived in the EU. In the UK, we currently provide sanctuary to around 16,000 people per year. 

The Home Office introduced community sponsorship in the UK in July 2016 as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme, which has a goal of resettling 23,000 people by 2020. Sponsorship enables community groups to support vulnerable people fleeing conflict by providing resettlement support and helping to enable their effective integration (providing access to housing, language training, employment advice, etc.). Canada has pioneered sponsorship, with over 300,000 refugees supported in this way over the past 40 years. The evidence points to the the transformational role community resettlement can play – speeding up integration, but also bringing communities together and building a more positive narrative on refugee issues.   

 

Why we are doing this: 

Sponsors can mobilise community level resources to achieve more effective integration – for example accelerating language learning and using their informal networks to help secure employment quicker

Sponsorship brings people together, integrating communities. Their shared experiences can build a more welcoming culture and change the narrative on refugee issues 

“Our hope is that the successful Canadian private sponsorship model will inspire others to develop programs appropriate to their context.” - Johannes Van Der Klaauw, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representative to Canada