SNS Right to Heal Conference 2026:Building Healing, Belonging, and Collective Power in Manchester

Coordinator 

By Dr I. Al‑Farah, SNS Coordinator

On Saturday, 23 May 2026, women from across the UK gathered in Manchester for the Sisters Not Strangers (SNS) Right to Heal Conference, hosted in partnership with Women Asylum Seekers Together (WAST) Manchester.

The conference brought together women seeking asylum, refugee-background women, practitioners, allies, and supporters for a day focused on healing, dignity, wellbeing, solidarity, and collective care within the asylum context. At a time when asylum debates are often dominated by policies, borders, legal processes, and political rhetoric, the conference created space to focus on something rarely centred in public discussions: the human impact of displacement, waiting, trauma, isolation, and survival, particularly on women.

More than a conference, the gathering became a space of honesty, reflection, connection, creativity, and resistance. Women spoke openly about the realities of living within the asylum system, while also celebrating resilience, friendship, leadership, joy, and community.

Over the years, SNS has organised national and local conferences, campaigns, community gatherings, advocacy work, research, public events, and collective actions across Birmingham, Liverpool, London, Sheffield, Manchester, Swansea, Coventry and international online spaces. The Manchester conference marked another important milestone in that growing journey.

What Is the Right to Heal?

Right to Heal is part of Sisters Not Strangers’ wider campaign work focused on women’s wellbeing, mental health, dignity, and recovery within the asylum system.

The campaign emerged from ongoing conversations, organising, and lived experience leadership among women seeking asylum and refugee women across the coalition.

Again and again, women spoke not only about legal uncertainty and poverty, but about the emotional and psychological impact of the asylum process itself: isolation, fear, long waiting periods, unsafe accommodation, trauma, family separation, racism, and the pressure of trying to survive while carrying unresolved grief and uncertainty.

Many women arrive in the UK after experiences of war, displacement, violence, exploitation, detention, or dangerous journeys. Yet after arrival, they are often expected to navigate complex immigration systems while still trying to recover emotionally and rebuild their lives.

Right to Heal was developed to challenge the idea that mental health and healing are secondary issues within the asylum system. Instead, the campaign argues that wellbeing, safety, dignity, belonging, and recovery are fundamental human needs, not optional extras.

The campaign also recognises that healing does not happen only through clinical services. Healing can also happen through community, solidarity, friendship, culture, movement, creativity, storytelling, organising, and spaces where women feel seen, listened to, and valued.

Alongside campaigning and advocacy, Right to Heal creates opportunities for women to come together, share experiences safely, influence conversations around asylum and mental health, and build collective power through lived experience leadership.

Manchester 2026: A Space for Healing and Truth-Telling

This year’s conference was proudly co-hosted by WAST Manchester, whose leadership and community organising played a central role in creating a welcoming and powerful gathering.

Women travelled from different cities to attend the event, joined by community organisations and supporters. The conference also welcomed SNS’s newly appointed Board members, Cathrine Lebadou and Lorna Pearcey, as well as guest speakers Dr Nikki Olasanmi, an independent researcher, and Dr Sarli Nana, Regional Organiser for Yorkshire & the Humber at Migrants Organise. SNS members with lived experience and campaign backgrounds also spoke, and their contributions deepened conversations around wellbeing, trauma, belonging, and the impact of hostile immigration policies on everyday life.

The atmosphere throughout the day reflected both the seriousness of the conversations and the warmth of the community that had been created. Women shared stories, danced together, reflected together, laughed together, and supported one another in a space intentionally rooted in dignity, safety, and belonging.

At the same time, the conference did not avoid difficult realities.

Speakers reflected openly on the emotional and psychological impact of the asylum system on women and communities. Conversations explored fear, uncertainty, isolation, racism, digital exclusion, poverty, housing insecurity, prolonged waiting periods, and the wider impact of hostile environment policies on everyday life.

One speaker reflected on the increasing anxiety many migrant communities feel in the current political climate:

“When I move around the streets, I don’t know what my neighbours think. Women carry fear not only for themselves, but for their children and families.”

The discussion also highlighted the devastating emotional impact of long waiting periods within the asylum system.

Some people wait years, and sometimes decades, without certainty about their future. Speakers reflected on the emotional exhaustion created by living in limbo for prolonged periods and the serious mental health consequences this can have on individuals and communities. Particularly moving were reflections on recent deaths within asylum-seeking communities, including suicides connected to prolonged uncertainty, isolation, and the pressures created by the system.

One speaker challenged the common political narrative around immigration systems by stating:

“The immigration system is not broken. It is hostile by design.”

The room held space for grief, anger, exhaustion, and honesty, while also refusing to define women only through suffering.

Again and again, women challenged the idea that they should be seen only as victims of harmful systems. They spoke as survivors, organisers, carers, mothers, leaders, and community builders.

Healing Is Not a Luxury

One of the strongest messages throughout the conference was that healing should not be treated as an optional extra. As one speaker reflected:

“The right to heal is not a luxury.”

Women spoke openly about the difficulty of trying to recover not only from war, violence, displacement, exploitation, and dangerous journeys, but also from the ongoing trauma many experience after arrival through the asylum process itself.

For some women, the challenge is not simply healing from the past but surviving the present. Speakers also reflected on the importance of breaking the silence around trauma and creating spaces where women can safely share experiences without judgement or fear.

The conference recognised that silence itself can become another form of trauma, and that healing requires trusted spaces, listening, care, solidarity, and community support.

Women’s Stories: Survival, Motherhood, and the Cost of Waiting

One of the most powerful parts of the day came through women’s testimonies. These stories gave real meaning to the phrase “Right to Heal”.

SNS speakers shared deeply personal reflections on long years spent waiting in the asylum system, the difficulty of finding legal support, and the emotional weight of continuing to campaign while still living with uncertainty themselves.

One speaker spoke about the pain of family separation and the complex emotions of finally being reunited with her children after many years apart. Her story showed how the asylum system not only delays paperwork. It interrupts motherhood, family life, memory, relationships, and identity. Years of separation cannot simply be returned once status is granted.

Another speaker shared a moving testimony about navigating the asylum system as a mother with a young child. She spoke about homelessness, repeated moves between cities, fear of immigration enforcement, school disruption, and the pain of hearing a child ask questions no parent should have to answer.

Her story highlighted how asylum policies affect children as well as adults. Behind every legal decision is a family trying to survive, a child trying to understand, and a mother trying to remain strong while carrying fear, uncertainty, and responsibility.

A guest speaker shared another perspective, reflecting on the long and exhausting journey of living under changing immigration rules, study requirements, financial strain, and the emotional impact of trying to build a future while constantly negotiating uncertainty.

Together, these testimonies showed that the harm caused by immigration systems is not only legal or administrative. It is emotional, relational, financial, physical, and generational.

But the stories were not only about pain. They were also about resistance, motherhood, education, campaigning, community, faith, and refusing to be broken.

Again and again, women reminded one another that they are not statistics, not case numbers, and not passive victims of the system. They are human beings, mothers, leaders, advocates, organisers, and women of purpose.

Building Community Against Isolation

A recurring theme throughout the day was the importance of community as a response to isolation.

Speakers reflected on how hostile immigration systems often isolate people emotionally, socially, digitally, and economically. Many women experience loneliness, invisibility, and exclusion while navigating everyday survival.

Against that reality, the conference itself became an act of resistance.

Women danced together, shared food, reflected in groups, created artwork, listened to music, exchanged stories, and celebrated one another throughout the day.

One participant shared:

“This is the first time I’ve felt a sense of belonging, inclusion, freedom, and joy at an event like this.”

Another speaker reflected:

“When we are together, we are stronger.”

That sense of solidarity could be felt across the room.

The Right to Heal Wall

One of the most powerful activities during the conference invited participants to reflect collectively on what healing means and what helps people survive difficult systems.

Women worked together to create a “Right to Heal Wall” filled with words, reflections, drawings, ideas, and messages of encouragement.

Across the different groups, healing was described through:

• friendship and community

• faith and prayer

• music and dancing

• creativity, arts, and acting

• travelling, swimming, parks, and nature

• cooking and sharing food

• speaking positive words to one another

• learning languages

• resilience and self-care

• making friends and attending supportive gatherings

• speaking out against injustice

• family, laughter, and togetherness

One group described healing through becoming:

“Not blood sisters, but soul sisters.”

These reflections demonstrated that healing is not only about professional services or medical support. Healing is also about dignity, connection, safety, culture, creativity, visibility, and belonging.

Looking Forward

The Right to Heal Conference was not simply an event. It reflected a wider movement led by women seeking sanctuary who continue to challenge exclusion, isolation, and injustice while building spaces rooted in care, solidarity, dignity, and collective power.

The conference also took place during an important period for Sisters Not Strangers as the coalition continues its transition toward becoming an independent charity with its newly established Board of Trustees.

As the coalition continues to grow, SNS remains committed to ensuring that women with lived experience remain at the centre of conversations, campaigns, research, leadership, and change.

In difficult political times, spaces like this matter deeply.

Because healing matters.

Because belonging matters.

And because every woman deserves the right to heal.