Loraine is a Migrants Rights Campaigner and a Poet based in Coventry, England. She is the ex-chair for Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group (CARAG) 2018-2022. CARAG is a peer support group which is for and run by people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants and anyone subjected to the UK Immigration and Asylum system. Loraine sits on the Board for Women for Refugee Women and on the Management Committee for Asylum Support Appeals Project (ASAP) among others. Because of community work with CARAG, Loraine was recognised as ‘Everyday Hero’ by Coventry city of culture 2021. She is originally from Malawi and has recently been recognised as a refugee. Loraine is the Author of I was not born a Sad Poet . Loraine has a lovely son.
WHO WE ARE
Welcome to No Audience Loraine (NAL) website. NAL is a long held dream come true. The NAL idea started on 13th December 2016 when I attended a training by a journalist on “what makes a story and how to get it across to your audience”
I was excited about the training because I wanted to tell about homelessness amongst asylum seekers which I found out when I had just been moved to Coventry in Feb 2016 and my first time living as an asylum seeker. The journalist however said “homelessness amongst asylum seekers would not be appealing to the British public. You need a different story that editors will approve and publish” she concluded
Shocking as it sounds, I owe this website to her insight because she did open my eyes: there are some stories which will deliberately be ignored despite the fact that there are lives of people at the centre of those stories because they are unappealing to the ‘British public’. She saved me from the frustration that may have come after writing the story and it never gets published yet no-one explains to you why it hasn’t been published. But she left an open wound in my heart which needed to heal by still sharing what I want to share because that is what is important to me.
We believe that there is healing in telling and sharing our stories despite the struggles. We believe all stories matter. NAL is about sharing stories that matter to us as we seek healing.
So NAL is here as a parking space for stories deemed as unappealing to the British public and beyond. NAL is about sharing our stories, deemed unappealing, as we seek healing for our marginalised and minoritised communities.
OUR MISSION
to provide a platform for marginalised and minoritised communities to tell their story from their point of view, in the form they are comfortable to tell
OUR VISION
that everyones story is heard without being judged