AFRIL - Action for Refugees in Lewisham

It’s day 2 of our Healthy Start campaign! To fit with the Healthy Start theme, three AFRIL staff members are taking on sports challenges over the campaign fortnight! Today, our Rainbow Club Manager, Kieran, cycled over 80km to write "AFRIL" with GPS over South London, and next week, our Director, Sophie and our Monitoring and Operations Officer, Jess, will run ~14km along the Thames from the Home Office to the AFRIL office. If you’d like to sponsor these challenges, please follow this link: https://lnkd.in/gAYZKXDQ All donations are DOUBLED and will support us to offer: 🍎 Healthy food for children at our food bank ⚽ Sports activities at our Rainbow Club school 🌱 Food growing & fun at our allotment Thank you to the Big Give and funding from The Childhood Trust & some of our supporters for making this matched funding campaign possible! #refugee #asylumseekers #children #family #child #refugees #asylumseeker #community #Lewisham #ChampionsForChildren #Lewisham #London #SouthEastLondon #sanctuary #allotment #gardening #fun #school #education #sports #food #healthy #fresh

Our Healthy Start campaign is live! We are aiming to raise £5K in 2 weeks to support refugee and asylum seeking children in South East London. If we reach this target, we’ll unlock a further £5K in funding, bringing the total to £10K! All funds raised will support us to offer… 🍎 Healthy food for children at our food bank ⚽ Sports activities at our Rainbow Club school 🌱 Food growing & fun at our allotment Please donate & share to help us to raise £10K in 2 weeks. All donations DOUBLED! https://lnkd.in/gAYZKXDQ

In December, we were pleased to have a feature in the Evening Standard. The feature focused on the impact of the rising costs of living on the people we support - something which still affects our members today. We have experienced a 93% increase in demand since the crisis began and it is continuing to rise, with people increasingly arriving at AFRIL in crisis after being let down by systems and structures that should support them. The people we support are best placed to tell you about the impact of the cost of living crisis and AFRIL on their lives - thank you so much to Ismail and Oluwaseun, two of our members who we supported to openly and honestly share their stories with the Evening Standard 💜 Oluwaseun is a 58-year-old grandmother from Lewisham who became the sole carer for her granddaughter after her tragically daughter died last year, and Ismail is an asylum seeker and human rights activist from Afghanistan who is living in London with his wife and three young children. We hope you enjoy reading their stories which really shed a light on the incredibly complex situations that people seeking sanctuary in the UK have to navigate, often with little to no income or government support. https://lnkd.in/gxW-mdQ4 (Names have been changed for confidentiality) #refugees #migration #asylumseekers #London #Lewisham #community #charity #support #RefugeesWelcome

If you do one thing today - watch this 7 minute film. No child should be forced to leave their home and seek sanctuary, however children currently make up a quarter of people seeking asylum in the UK. It is with both sadness and pride that we launch - A Place to Call Home. This short film was produced by AFRIL’s funders the Childhood Trust and features the first hand accounts of the remarkable and inspiring children that AFRIL is currently supporting through our Rainbow Club, Foodbank Programme and Advice and Advocacy Service. The children share in their own words what it is really like to flee your home, make a dangerous journey to another country seeking safety, and what their hopes and dreams are for the future. Thank you to the AFRIL staff and parents who supported and empowered the children to tell their stories.

Welcome to our new LinkedIn page! Our AFRIL team is made up of 14 staff members (6 FTE), and over 80 volunteers. This week is Volunteers' Week, and we're delighted to dedicate our first LinkedIn post to our wonderful volunteer team. 📚 Our volunteer teaching assistants and youth volunteers make it possible for us to support over 100 children a year at our Rainbow Club school. 🍅 Our food bank volunteers ensure our food bank members have a warm welcome, and that those who cannot get to the food bank have their food parcels delivered. 🌱 Our Allotment of Refuge volunteers share their knowledge and skills to grow fresh, culturally appropriate produce for our food bank, and make site improvements. 💻 Our office volunteers support us to ensure all our projects run smoothly and efficiently. ⚖ And, last but not least, our Trustees bring a wide range of experience, share their insights, and ensure good governance at AFRIL. Thank you so much to all our volunteers who donate their valuable time to support our members - we couldn't do what we do without you!