Have you ever stopped to think about how it must feel to leave your home country. The place you were born and brought up. Leave behind all your family and friends? Well, for scores of refugees and asylum seekers in Leicester that's a reality they had to face. In a special Telling Lives, to celebrate Refugee Week we spoke to four refugees who moved to Leicester about the life they left behind and their lives here. Listen to Chris, Elizabeth, Sigli and Ali tell their stories by clicking on the links below...Find out more about their stories... Chris' StoryChris comes from a big family in a troubled African country. He is a poet and a musician who loves football. His Telling Lives story is about how every refugees misses home and family. Chris wrote his story in the style of a letter to his mother. "If anyone learns where I come from they will learn not to judge a book by it's cover. They will not use names like refugee, black and illegal immigrant. They will only see a human being." Elizabeth's storyElizabeth is a qualified primary school teacher and a devoted catholic from Central Africa. She is also a talented artist, singer, drummer and a dancer. She hopes her Telling Lives story makes people think about their attitudes towards asylum seekers and refugees. "She found herself a rejected foreigner in exile at her old age. This time with no family, a killed son and worst of all with the strange names illegal immigrant, hard case asylum seeker. The only valuable property she had was her strong Christian faith." Sigli's StorySigli is a student from Ghana who loves reading and has a strong interest in politics. His story is about growing up in a town full of conflict. He wants people to realise just because they don't always hear about problems in certain countries doesn't mean they aren't going on. "At the age of seven I saw three people slaughtered in front of my own eyes. I was so horrified and shaken but after that incident I became harder because I have seen more and more of that, not to mention talk of houses being burned down and people being treated like animals." Ali's StoryAli Khider is from Kurdistan, he has lived and worked in Leicestershire for five years. Ali's story is about young love and how he and his friends spent one week climbing a mountain to find a special flower for his love. "During the week we sang and sheltered in the dark." | 
