Standing with Refugees Refugee Support Europe

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Journalist and photographer Sean Hawkey has just returned from one month with the Honduran 'Migrant Caravan'. This is a moving, intimate account of travelling with people who had no choice other than to take huge risks migrating north.

With detailed, first hand knowledge of Honduras and the Honduran people, Sean talks about what has driven these people to head north, who they are and what their prospects are now. 

The drivers are a combination of climate change, extreme poverty, shocking violence and a criminal political elite. The migrants are refugees and like all refugees a cross-section of society with many children. And while they received poignant and inspiring acts of solidarity from Mexicans throughout their journey, they now face some hostility in Tijuana and across the border in the US.

You can see find out more about Sean's journey on his website, facebook page and Instagram.

Sean has also just produced The Real Face of Jesus, a fantastic book of portraits that tells the stories of Hondurans called Jesus and their political and social struggles that you can buy here. 

Help Refugee Support Europe

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Samira Harnish founded Women of the World and her work was recognised by the UNHCR when she won the Nansen Award for the Americas this year. She helps displaced women to become self-reliant. They offer an individual customised service for every woman to help them deal with different government bodies, to get into work and to help with practical English.

We talk about this fantastic service she runs from Salt Lake City, the many obstacles she has to overcome, and how the situation for displaced people in the US has got worse in the last 2 years.

But she is not going to let anything stop her and she has a clear message – if we give our refugee neighbours a chance, they can accomplish great things.

If you are in Utah on December 8th you can be part of their event to celebrate women’s achievements – the 10th year they have been running this. 

Help Refugee Support Europe

We rely on donations for everything we do and need your help, however small.

Mohammed Nour talks movingly to co-founder John about his journey from the tragedy of Aleppo, dealing with smugglers to get into Greece with his family, being stuck in a camp for nearly 2 years until finally getting a chance to realise his dreams in Switzerland.

We met Mohammed Nour, now aged 22, and his inspirational family in Alexandreia  camp in Greece and theirs is a story of extreme loss and hardship, strength and resilience. 

He talks about the traumatic events that forced them to leave, dealing with smugglers to get into Greece, and the privations and indignities of a refugee camp. But now they are rebuilding their lives and he talks about his strong desire to be independent and to continue saving others' lives.

Help Refugee Support Europe

We rely on donations for everything we do and need your help, however small.

In this week's special podcast, we follow up with writer Dina Nayeri after her visit to two of the camps where we work. She wrote movingly about her visit in the Guardian.

As a child refugee herself, there were many parallels with her childhood experience, and it came with many bitter-sweet moments. Dina and Paul talk about the humanity that shines through adversity, about what it means to be a refugee and the the current political situation. 

Dina's new book The Ungrateful Refugee, some of which will be based in Greece, will be published in spring 2019.

Joy Stacey of Brighton-based Silat Network is setting up a service to offer training and mentoring to students in refugee communities so that they can access universtiy education abroad. 

There are plenty of scholarships and university places available but how to find these, how to apply and how to be successful is not well known outside of the UK and US. Of course there are private companies that can help with that - for a fee - but Silat Network will be offering it for free to refugees in Palestine and Lebanon.

This is a great initiative born from seeing a real need and a frustration that extremely talented people are missing out on great opportunities to improve their lives and ours because of institutional and economic barriers. She already has one fantastic success story.

You can contact Joy at joy@silatnetwork.com.

Help Refugee Support Europe

We rely on donations for everything we do and need your help, however small.

One of our trustees, Rana, talks about the people she is helping us to support with our new Business Fund for refugees at Katsikas camp. The Business Fund is the next step in our model to bring dignity and normality to people stuck in refugee camps. It has been an inspiring weekend and a huge privilege to help people with their plans to improve their living standards and, importantly, to gain some independence.

The concept of the Business Fund is simple. One month ago we asked people on the camp to submit a one-page business proposal. We are lending  €1,000 to every viable proposal plus all the legal and coaching support they need to help that business thrive. You can read about the first 12 businesses that will be recipients of the fund during August 2018 here.