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Mentor Lorna Bedford and refugee Veronique Mujangi admire the award.

A REFUGEE mentoring project in Dudley has clinched a prestigious award for its work in the community.

The Time Together Refugee Mentoring Project has been presented with the Michael Durkin Award for an outstanding contribution to bringing people together and building stronger communities.

The project matches UK citizens with refugees on a one-to-one basis to help them settle into the community and to create ambassadors for refugees in the area.

It was launched by the Dudley Centre for Equality and Diversity with funding from the London-based organisation TimeBank and has more than 40 refugees matched with mentors across the borough.

The award was presented to the centre's chief executive Kenneth Rodney by Lorna Prescott, senior development officer for Dosti, a Dudley organisation promoting friendship between ethnic groups.

Michael Durkin who died at the start of the year, had a long and distinguished career in secondary, further and higher education in the borough and was a leading light in the Dudley One World group which evolved with other groups into the Dudley Borough Interfaith Network, in his memory.

Lorna said: "Dosti made this award to the Time Together Refugee Mentoring Project because we felt that it was something which Michael would have thought incredibly valuable.

"It's fantastic that residents in Dudley Borough are giving their time to volunteer for such a worthwhile project, which brings people together.

"As well as the practical support given to mentees, the matching of volunteer mentors to refugees must help to light sparks of friendship, which we in Dosti think is important in communities in our borough."

Mr Rodney said it was "fantastic" to receive such recognition, and Lorna Bedford, 68, from Stourbridge, who has been mentoring Congolese refugee Veronique Mujangi for six months added: "It's lovely that the project has been acknowledged in this way. I am proud to part of it."

11:32am Friday 9th May 2008

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