This route through Deptford links global health inequalities instituted by British imperialism to the ongoing fight for health justice in Lewisham today.

Seven short films - each located at a different point in the route - tell a powerful, double-edged story. On the one hand they record, and honour, the remarkable achievements of a local voluntary community group, Red Ribbon Living Well, founded in 2009 by Husseina Hamza and Florence Daada, who are both immigrants from East Africa.

As part of a community facing significant unmet health care needs and health equity challenges, Red Ribbon took on the task themselves to provide solutions and care for the needs of others, no matter what. On the other hand, the films also testify to the conditions surrounding Red Ribbon’s work which were often characterised by a lack of even the most basic levels of external support – a situation that, fifteen years later, we hope is now gradually changing.

The films and narration register Red Ribbon’s history through one specific lens: how the group has been constantly on the move, through its fifteen years of existence. These moves, precipitated by decreases in social funding, changes in local real estate portfolios and the fragile ecology of local support organisations are representative of the larger and ongoing histories of dispossession that link colonial histories of the Deptford Dockyard to the present.

At the same time the films evidence how certain places welcomed and supported Red Ribbon, linking to histories of solidarity and resistance in the borough. The project was developed by Red Ribbon’s Husseina Hamza, Deptford People’s Heritage Museum’s Joyce Jacca, Dr Jorella Andrews and media producer Inaya Hussain.

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37871