support us > how your money is spent
Without money from people like you, much of the work that Refugee Action does would not be possible.
We receive grants from Government to allow us to carry out very specific parts of our work but we are not allowed to use this money for any other purpose.
That’s why the money that we receive from individual donors and charitable trusts is essential in helping us to work in other ways.
Direct Projects
Speaking out
Long term planning
Research
Campaigning
Direct projects
Your money means that we can work to provide direct projects that meet the need of some of our more vulnerable clients. They may be more vulnerable because they are isolated, or because they are young and here without parents. Or perhaps they are women looking after very young children.
Some of the projects that your money can directly help us to provide include:
Mentoring project – young asylum seekers are especially vulnerable, particularly if they are here on their own. After speaking to young people in Liverpool they told us they would like help to settle into life here and also to meet British young people. As a result we set up a mentoring project.
Wellbeing – some asylum seekers are dispersed to regions where they don’t know anyone at all and where it can be impossible to meet anyone who even speaks the same language. Isolation is one of the key factors that can lead to person becoming anxious or depressed. Refugees can be even more vulnerable because of the trauma they have already survived. Because of this we set up the Wellbeing Project. It brings refugees together to set up art and sport based projects that they can take part in.
Refugee Awareness Project – unfortunately many of our clients face hostility in the areas where they are sent to live. This can happen in different ways. Some of our clients are spat at or ignored at work. For others it can be even more frightening. One of our young clients has been beaten up three times because he is a refugee. Too many of our clients are living in fear.
This is why we are setting up a refugee awareness project, which will train refugee volunteers and British volunteers to speak to influential groups and residents in local communities to help them understand what life is like for asylum seekers, why people flee their country and the contribution that refugees make to Britain.
Speaking out
Negative and ill-informed media coverage of asylum issues has a very real impact on our clients, who experience first-hand the hostility it can help create in the communities in which they live.
Refugee Action's small Communications Team provides a 24-hour national press office service, responding to the media nationally and in the regions. We also work pro-actively to promote a more informed and balanced public debate on asylum. We are especially committed to profiling refugee voices and supporting individual asylum seekers and refugees to tell their stories.
Your money helps us to speak out independently to defend the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and to help ensure that their voices are heard.
Long term planning
As well as carrying out direct immediate projects we know that we need to plan for the longer term and work hard to change things for our clients. Current government policy and reporting in some of the media means that all too often our clients face unwelcoming and harsh treatments in local communities.
Research
We ask our clients what they are experiencing, by carrying out research. It is only by doing this that we can find out the truth of what is happening and tell others. For example we spoke to over 100 refugee women about what life in Britain was like for them (Is it safe here? Refugee women’s experiences in the UK). We were only able to do this because of the donations that we received from individuals through the Guardian newspaper appeal.
Campaigning
We see it as a key part of our work to campaign with and on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers.
You will see from our influencing policy page that we have been successful in doing this. For example we carried out a campaign after carrying out the research with refugee women. This helped to make some real practical differences to women’s everyday lives.
Please help - you can make a difference