As we made him a cup of tea, he began to tell his story. After his father was killed, he’d fled the violence in Syria as a 16 year-old boy, and made the dangerous journey across Europe alone. In Calais, a British volunteer had given him our address and told him to contact us if he ever made it to England.
The Crisis
Overnight, on 2nd September 2015, a heartbreaking photo of a drowned boy changed the public’s response to the refugee crisis in the EU. Suddenly, we woke up to the fact that there are over 50 million people uprooted in the world today – never since World War Two have so many been displaced. Over the last year, this crisis has landed on our door-step: more than one million people arrived in the EU in 2015, and 3,695 have drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach safety.
Some 2,564 children like Faisal arrived alone in Britain last year – from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and many other countries at war or under persecution. As the UK Government resettles 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps around Syria over the next five years, and responds to calls to resettle an additional 3,000 unaccompanied children already in Europe, we will need more people to come together to help these young refugees build new lives.
Unaccompanied Refugee Children: The Need
Once we’d worked through Faisal’s fears about where he would sleep, and linked him with the local authority, he said, ‘There’s just two things that really matter to me – I want to start studying again, and I want some friends.’
Almost all of the young refugees arriving in the UK tell us that education is the key to rebuilding their lives. Going to school makes them feel normal again and the educational mentors we provide build their confidence, helping them to believe that their future may not be lost. Education means hope.
For the last six years, Refugee Support Network has been helping unaccompanied refugee children like Faisal build more hopeful futures through education. We run a range of education advice, guidance, advocacy and mentoring to help young refugees do well in education – all the while supporting their mental and emotional health and integration into local communities.
How can I help?
Before founding Refugee Support Network, I worked as a youth worker and have seen first-hand how much difference a passionate and committed youth worker can make in the life of a disadvantaged young person and how a youth group can be a place of welcome, shelter and home for young people of all faiths and none.
1) Educate yourself! Read about the refugee crisis, understand the reasons people flee their homes, the difference between resettlement and travelling on your own, what happens when refugees reach the UK. Email info@refugeesupportnetwork. org to receive a resource pack for churches and encourage your church to become a ‘ForRefugees’ church, receiving news and updates on the refugee crisis.
2) Find out what’s going on in your local area. Young refugees often have complex needs and you will not have the expertise or capacity to deal with every issue. Most cities have a small number of local charities providing support to refugees in the region.
3) Don’t assume they will find you. Make sure the specialist organisations and charities are aware of you and the activities you run for young people. A Syrian boy may tell his social worker he wishes he could join a football team, or an Eritrean girl might tell her housing support worker that she feels bored and lonely when she isn’t at school.
4) Treat them as a normal member of your group, while providing extra support where needed. Most of the young refugees we work with don’t want to be labelled as different. Provide a warm and inclusive welcome that doesn’t make them stand out more than they need to. They may struggle with confidence, and with communicating in English but try to encourage them in ways that cultivate a sense of belonging. When things come up that you don’t know how to deal with, contact the local professionals you’ve built up a relationship with.
5) Respect their religion and traditions. Some young refugees will come from Christian backgrounds and will be looking to grow and develop their faith. Others come from Muslim backgrounds, and must be free to participate in the activities they want to, knowing that their religion and traditions are respected and that there is no pressure to engage in the faith-related aspects of the group.
6) Consider becoming an RSN mentor. Our educational mentoring schemes match young refugees with a personal mentor from their local community, who will meet with them every week for at least 6 months, helping them work towards educational goals and build their confidence. We currently operate our educational mentoring programmes across London, but, as soon as we raise the necessary funds, we’ll be expanding to other key locations across the UK over the year ahead. We are looking for dedicated, passionate individuals with experience working with young people to help us do this. Acting as a volunteer mentor takes about three hours a week. We will be running regional training sessions for prospective educational mentors in late Spring. If you’re interested in getting involved, sign up for an alert when the dates and locations are released.
The way ahead
To hear about regional trainings or to receive a resource pack, email info@ refugeesupportnetwork.org.
To donate to our appeal to help us open new educational mentoring hubs, visit justgiving. com/crisistoclassroom. To set up a direct debit providing sustainable support, visit refugeesupportnetwork.org/donate.
Catherine Gladwell is the founder and director of Refugee Support Network.
