Refugees from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan were welcomed to a community garden in Powys this week as part of a project to make them feel welcome in the county.

The event at Gerddi Bro Ddyfi in Machynlleth was organised by the gardens and Aberystwyth University and was attended by Mayor Jeremy Paige.

Activities included volunteers and guests making a new mini wildlife pond, trimming the willow dome, and creating some flower prints. The event also included creating artwork that may end up in an exhibition at the Aberystwyth Arts centre from November 10.

One of the organisers of the event was Morris Brodie, a digital intern for the project 'Refugees from National Socialism in Wales: Learning from the Past for the Future', based at Aberystwyth University.

He said: “We’ve organised this event for refugees as part of refugee week and it’s funded through Aberystwyth university. It’s called the World We Want hub, which is a new funding stream that the university is doing to push forward knowledge exchange events, including those with the local community. Our project which is also in collaboration with the imperial war museum in London.

“It’s part of the of the Second World War Holocaust partnership programme which looks at refugees from Nazi Germany that came to Wales.

“As part of that we are doing an exhibition at the Aberystwyth arts centre in November this year until January which is also touring the Senedd in Cardiff which is co-curated by modern refugees

“We’re making the parallels between refugees in 1930s, 1940s fleeing Nazi Germany and those who have come in recent times to Wales from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine now as well.

“We’re trying to make the connections between the two and to encourage people in thinking about welcoming refugees and the good that refugees can bring to communities.”

Fern Towers the assistant volunteer co-ordinator for the gardens helped organise the event and felt it had been a success: “We’ve been doing a lot of eating and chatting and helping them with their English, sharing stories about where they have come from and how they are finding life here and just teaching them little bits about gardening and garden variety crafts.

“It’s been nice making friendships across different cultures and making them fell welcome, they’ve been absolutely lovely.”