Teenager dedicates college project to great-grandmother who founded Brixton housing project – South London News

A 17-year-old student dedicated her final major college project to her great-grandmother who came to London as part of Windrush generation and helped establish housing services across the capital.

Kaia Gifford, from Sutton, currently studying media at Guilford College, directed and produced We Are Windrush, a short documentary about the lives of the Windrush generation.

The documentary was inspired by Ms Gifford’s great-grandmother Lee Samuel, who came to Britain from Guyana in 1949.

Mrs Samuel worked as a nurse before becoming a founder member of Carib Housing Association, which set up four housing projects in London – now under Notting Hill Housing Association – including Lee Samuel House in Nealden Street, Brixton.

Mrs Gifford said: “My great grandmother received an MBE for her work.

“Unfortunately, I never met her, but talking to my grandmother made me realize how important it is to educate my generation about the incredible legacy of the Windrush generation.”

Ms Gifford said she was shocked by people her age who had not heard of the Windrush generation.

She said: “The Windrush generation have done so much for this country. They’ve contributed massively to the NHS and TfL but the people I speak to don’t know anything about it, they don’t know their name, who they are, they think it’s a band.”

The documentary was filmed across London, with key locations including Brixton Market and the Windrush Generation Legacy Association in the Whitgift Centre, Croydon.

The interviews featured in the documentary explore what it was like for those who left their homeland to come to England and how they were treated.

Ms Gifford said: “I wanted to share the stories of people who were separated from their families, but also the community that was created in south London that emulated what the Caribbean was like for these people.”

To watch the documentary visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w4LpsV_C7U.

Image above: from left, Lee Samuel receives an MBE for her work on housing/ Kaia Gifford (Image: Kaia Gifford)

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