Hats off to Elisha!

By Kenneth Mawomo

Compliments of the season everyone!  HAT News regrets to inform you, our valued readers, that our founding editor, Elisha Shamba has moved on.  He has left for a bigger challenge and we wish him well in his new career. Needless to say his immense experience and dedication to duty will be sadly missed.  Personally, I owe the man a huge debt of gratitude for being my mentor and I will always look up to him for guidance and inspiration.  To be honest, I will not be able to fill his boots because he is one of those people who are difficult to replace.

When he started, he just had a blank website to contend with.  Through sheer hard work, he managed to transform HAT News into a reliable national news source for immigration, refugee and asylum seeker issues.  For HAT News to be mentioned in the same breath with established newspapers such as The Guardian, as a reliable news source, speaks volumes about Elisha’s professional work ethic.  Such recognition is contained in a report, Gathering Evidence Effectively, published by the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR), an independent information and research organisation based in the School of Social Sciences at City University in London.  HAT News owes its current success to its humble founding editor and I cannot thank him enough for the good work and firm foundation he has laid for us.  Wish you the best Bruv!

For the benefit of those who did not receive direct email communication from Elisha, below is how he signed off:

Dear All,
This is to inform you all that after much consideration I have decided to relinquish involvement in the day-to-day operations of HAT News and give up my role as Editor with immediate effect to pursue other career opportunities. I feel it is time for a new challenge and this is a good opportunity to further my career goals.

Volunteering for Citizens Eye and Leicester Libraries as Editor and co-founder of HAT News has been a wonderful experience. I could not ask for a better group of colleagues. I have grown in many ways and will always treasure the good times. I appreciate both the professional and personal growth opportunities that have been provided to me during my time.

Having been part of the founding of HAT News and overseeing the project through its meteoric growth and success is humbling. Since its inception about 18 months ago I have had the privilege to network with a number of very dedicated people in the Refugee and Asylum sector,  (both from the Voluntary and Statutory sectors), and not forgetting the asylum seekers and refugees themselves.

In my tenure as Editor, HAT News has recorded a number of significant achievements including coverage of different organisations’ events, workshops and conferences in the city and on occasions at national level. The 2009 Special Olympics, the Destitution Survey launch, asylum seekers Hunstanton retreat, co-hosting the hugely successful ‘No Place Like Home Conference, making a short film on asylum seekers experiences in Leicester, Refugee Week 2009 newsletter, presenting weekly community radio shows, representation at the Multi Agency Forum and Leicestershire Working Together Forum, a 24 hour service link with UKBA Press Office, involvement in the filming of a documentary for Channel 4-[ provisionally scheduled to be shown in January 2010], just to mention a few.

In addition to winning two awards in November 2009, a report Gathering Evidence Effectively published by Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees (ICAR), an independent information and research organisation based in the School of Social Sciences at City University in London, identified HAT News as one of the useful and reliable sources of information on immigration, asylum and refugee issues nationally.

It gives me great pleasure to part on such a high note and I am proud to have worked with such an amazing group of people.  My heart has not changed towards the importance and significance that HAT News serves in the community and I am excited about the future possibilities of which I have helped lay foundations towards. 

However, I am now more directly involved with working alongside unaccompanied asylum seeking minors who need care and support.  This work gives me a new insight into the issues in practice and I feel this work is valuable, as is my growing involvement with teaching British young people about asylum seeker issues.  I do feel that the work that I am involved in could open more opportunities for the people I work with and for; this is close to my heart and demonstrate the soul of what HAT News has set out to achieve.  In this way, I would like to remain open to the initiatives, projects and people that Citizens Eye serves and would love to help in any way I can.  I am sure that the organisation I now work for is also open to this possibility in the future.  Journalism is my passion, but so is working ‘on the ground’ with people who I can pass on my experiences, knowledge and love to.    I have no doubt that these two passions will meet in the future and that excites me.�

However, for now I wish HAT News and indeed the entire team at Citizens Eye Community Media Hub, Cindro Works and Leicester Libraries continued success in 2010 and beyond.�

Finally, I would like to thank you all in particular for all your advice, encouragement and support. I hope that we will stay in touch as I begin this new chapter in my career.
Very best wishes
Elisha Shamba

Please Note: I will no longer be using the [email protected] webmail but can be contacted at [email protected]
For any issues relating to HAT News, please do not hesitate to contact Kenneth Mawomo the current editor at [email protected]