An Interview with Kidu, Tommy & Poppy · Refugee Week 2025
“We met in this specific place… every Saturday morning.” Kidu fondly recalls, it was at the Saturday morning cafe in Kings House that his friendship with Tommy and Poppy began, bonding over games like Uno and Connect Four. “That’s how I met them, this lovely couple of beautiful people.”
Tommy’s first impression of Kidu was his “relentless positivity.” He remembers, “Like I remember you coming into the cafe, like, super smiley, super easy to engage with, very positive. Even when you were talking about hard stuff, you were just like, you brought a real positivity to the space with a real kind of joy that was slightly infectious.” Poppy reflects on Kidu’s remarkable ability to connect with others. “He’s someone who makes connections really quickly. You arrived in London in a difficult situation, but a whole network sprang up around you… because of how friendly and joyful you are.” Kidu jokingly describes Tommy and Poppy as “super cool,” while this set off affectionate laughter from everyone, but he quickly added, “They are kind… most importantly, they are kind.”
Kidu arrived in London from Ethiopia nearly three years ago. Once an auditor, he has since fully immersed himself in music, playing drums and bass, and teaching as well. However, settling into his new life wasn’t easy. “It was a tough time because I’d never been in that kind of situation before in my life, I didn’t realise how it would be, like having someone you never knew, you never met, to step into your life… do you know how scary that is?… [but] because of these guys, because of you, all of you, it got better… day by day.”
Their relationship has grown from one of support to a true friendship. Reflecting on how their relationship has changed over the years, Kidu says, “For the better yes… At the beginning I was just taking taking taking taking… and now, it’s just getting stronger, more [like] family, more [like] friends.” Tommy agrees, “you took us out for dinner, you took us for Ethiopian food… having you at our wedding was really special, like that was amazing… having you over for dinner, going out for dinner with you… yeah… feels more like family.” Kidu laughs and replies, “I told you!”
Hope runs deeply through their story. Poppy explains the importance of walking alongside people over time: “I get a lot of hope from seeing lives change when you know people over several years… there’s no formula.” Transformation isn’t a simple or predictable process; there are no quick fixes or answers. Their faith informs much more than just hope; it shapes how they live daily. Tommy reflects, “I think the whole narrative of the Bible, the whole narrative of Jesus is like a narrative of justice… a God who steps into the earth in all of its mess and decides that he wants to engage with the vulnerable, with the leper, with the poor, the marginalised… it’s this beautiful vision of someone with so much power giving that up for other people… I in my own limited way, am in a position of power… my faith calls me out of that, to serve.” Poppy summarises their shared belief: “There are lots of different ways to think about it, but for me, God calls us to love other people like he loves us.”
In Kidu’s words: “What gives hope in life, it’s all about sharing… it’s not about giving… you can never be successful unless you lift someone up.”