Sarah and her kidney donor, Sue, were one of three couples talking about how they had been friends through thick and thin.

Reviewing ‘A week in radio,’ for the Guardian, Elisabeth Mahoney wrote: The week’s funniest, warmest and bleakest moments were people talking about relationships. Friends through Thick and Thin in which three pairs of female friends reminisced, was beautifully produced and instantly recognisable portrait of these key relationships…… between snippets of Judy Garland singing “Friendships”, the women’s anecdotes conveyed the trajectory of a lifelong affection”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0151xsf

The meeting took place in Conway Hall in London, the same venue which launched the Anti-Apartheid Campaign in 1958. The first person I met was Penny Newell, a fellow olive tree planter and someone whom I had admired for her ‘get up and go’ approach. She is returning to plant more olive trees in a couple of weeks.

I attended the meeting to listen and learn and it fulfilled this objective. Besides being able to collect helpful information sheets about various aspects of the campaign, I was especially pleased to collect a new map showing the steady shrinking of Palestine since 1948. Today it is no more than a number of green dots being strangled by a growing number of settlements and roads which Palestinian cannot use. Soon Jerusalem will be completely surrounded by settlements and will become largely inaccessible to Palestinians.

Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian representative of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign spoke of having reached a ‘South Africa’ moment. Palestinians are calling upon international organisations and people of conscience to:

“Impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era,” until Israel complies with international law.

This means not purchasing settlement produce falsely labelled as Israeli and targeting companies like Veolia, a French company which supports illegal settlements and profits from waste management and other contracts with UK local authorities.

Stoke City Council has contracts with Veolia which has depots in Newstead Industrial Trading Estate and another in Whittle Road in Longton.

This will require further action!

• A comprehensive embargo on arms trading with Israel
• Urgent action by the UK government to prevent the destruction of Palestinian life and culture in Jerusalem
• MPs to press for an end to the siege on Gaza and for international law to be upheld.

My MP, Paul Farrelly, was not available but I met his Parliamentary Researcher, Neil Watkins, and we had a useful conversation.

Paul had already signed an Early Day Motion concerning:

• The systematic attempts to reduce the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem and the Jerusalem periphery through the eviction of Palestinian families, demolition of Palestinian homes, expansion of Israeli settlements, removal of residency rights from many Palestinian families of Jerusalem and refusal of access to Jerusalem and its holy sites to most Muslim and Christian Palestinians from the West Bank, resulting in the gradual destruction of Palestinian life and culture.
• Support for the Government’s position of not recognising Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem, of regarding Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem as contrary to international law and of refusing to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel until it becomes a shared capital for both nations, and
• Calls on the Government to take steps to ensure that the Israeli authorities respect the rights of Palestinians as well as Israeli citizens and the freedom of worship of all faiths in Jerusalem.

Having not taken part in a lobby before I was glad I did so. It increased my understanding of what contribution I can make towards achieving justice and peace for Palestinians and Israelis, Being active on their behalf keeps my hope alive.

The collection was less successful than last year with 192 against 240 food parcels distributed. Fortunately more money than was donated which was very welcome because ASHA was unable to subsidise the Children’s Christmas Party. Without our donors’ contribution of £785 the party could not have taken place.

Parcels were distributed to families and individuals from: Sudan, Zimbabwe, Congo, Somalia, Tibet, Kashmir, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fifty-two children and 85 adults attended the Children’s Party and the Salvation Army provided presents for 68 children. Some received their gift before the party if they were unable to attend.

Besides being entertained by African drumming, a Karate display, story-telling and a music competition, everyone enjoyed an African meal prepared by volunteers. This included Senegalese rice, Rwandan beans with aubergines, Ugandan matoki with peanuts, chicken wings and potatoes cooked the Kenyan way, oxtail, peanuts and vegetables in cassava leaves and beef cooked the Burundian way.

It is not possible to estimate numbers in advance. Nobody can say with any degree of accuracy how many asylum seekers there are in North Staffordshire. The volunteers cooked for 100. As the afternoon became the evening more and more people arrived taking the number to about 180. Not everyone got a meal which was sad but latecomers accepted this in good heart.

Besides thanking everyone who contributed and donated food, we are especially grateful to the Salvation Army for giving us toys for the children and to Marks and Spencer who provide carrier bags. This year the Breathe City Church offered additional food and we regretted not being in a position to accept their generous offer. Similarly the Grace Church in Etruria offered their premises for the children’s party but the hall was not available on the best day so the party went back to the Mandela Club in Hanley.

The food collection and the party would not be possible without the help of ASHA and ASHA’s leading light, Godefroid Seminega because they know how reach out to families and individuals most in need of support.