"REDDITCH will be a welcoming town," that's the message after the first meeting of a new group started to help greet Syrian refugees to Redditch.

Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcomes Refugees is a community group of people preparing to welcome and support Syrian refugees when the first families arrive.

The group, which held its first meeting last week, is seeking volunteers to help give furniture, clothes, essential supplies, translation services and most importantly, it says, friendship.

The meeting, at St Stephen's Church in Redditch, saw more than 130 people of all faiths, cultures and politics turn up.

A spokesman for Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcomes Refugees said: "The meeting was very positive and went very well.

"All those attending were fully involved and attentive to all that was said."

During the meeting there was a moving account from Abdul Nasser, who with his wife and daughter, was one of the first refugees brought here from Syria by the British Government.

He expressed gratitude to the British Government and described how his own parents as well as his wife's parents had been brutally killed.

It was followed by a lively question and answer session.

Following the meeting Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcome Refugees will be running a training day for those who want to be involved in some way in welcoming them.

The Getting Ready training day will be held at St Andrew’s Parish Centre, 24 Sandhills Road, Barnt Green from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, June 4.

It offers an opportunity to meet Julie Kashirahamwe, national resettlement manager of Refugee Action.

The Advertiser reported last week that Redditch will be the first town in the county to take in Syrian Refugees.

The first three families (comprising eight refugees) will be resettled in town at the end of June.

Two families are linked and will be put in the same property.

Worcestershire County Council is liaising with the Home Office to arrange for a further four families to arrive in mid-July who will be resettled in a further two homes in Redditch and two in Kidderminster.

For more information about Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcomes Refugees or to book a place for the training day, email janeteking110@gmail.com or call 0121 4452802.