Help Refugees

Help Refugees
Motto Choose Love
Established 2015 (2015)
Type NGO
Legal status Charity
Location
Key people

Lliana Bird
Dawn O'Porter
Jess Mills
Josie Naughton
Dani Lawrence
Philli Boyle

Nico Stevens
Website helprefugees.org

Help Refugees is a UK-based non-governmental organization (NGO) which provides humanitarian aid to, and advocacy for, refugees around the world. It is the largest facilitator of grassroots aid in Europe and works with over 80 projects in Europe and the Middle East.[1]

History

Help Refugees grew out of a social media fund-and-donation-raising campaign organised by radio presenter and writer Lliana Bird, TV presenter and writer Dawn O'Porter and artist management assistant Josie Naughton in August 2015.[2] The campaign, with the hashtag #HelpCalais, was intended to raise aid to support refugees in the so-called Jungle camp in Calais.

Bird and Naughton offered to help Bird's former acting teacher, Tom Radcliffe, who was aiming to raise £1,000 and a van-load of donations to drive from the UK to Calais. They met with O'Porter and decided to launch the hashtag #HelpCalais to raise awareness of the crisis and to help raise funds. They used their social media followings and celebrity contacts to spread the word and were overwhelmed with the response: within weeks the group had raised over £50,000 and enough material donations to warrant them relocating to a larger storage space, which was donated by Big Yellow Group. Dani Lawrence, who runs an import company with her husband, offered to help coordinate getting the donations to Calais. A warehouse was located in Calais to store the donations and distribute them from. As more volunteers arrived to help, Help Refugees began efforts to build temporary shelters at the camp, serve hot food, distribute goods and provide other services that were not being catered for sufficiently, working with local associations where possible. From here, the organisation grew to offer aid and support in other areas where refugees were arriving into Europe.

Since 2015, Help Refugees has helped more than 722,500 people across the world[3].

Media coverage

The Guardian chose Help Refugees as one of the partner charities for their 2016 Charity Appeal.[4]

Help Refugees' census of the Calais refugee camp received media coverage across the globe[5][6][7].

A BBC documentary Calais: The Last Days Of The Jungle featured interviews with several Help Refugees staff and volunteers.[8]

Celebrity endorsements

Celebrities who have endorsed, advocated, partnered and performed for Help Refugees and their fundraising events include Jude Law, Tom Odell[9] and Pamela Anderson.[10]

Collaborations

In June 2017, Help Refugees partnered with London's V&A for Help Refugees: Our Shared Future, a series of discussions in their Lecture Theatre to launch the 2017 Refugee Week.[11]

Choose Love

At a fundraiser in November 2015, Help Refugees launched their iconic 'Choose Love' t-shirts, created by British designer Katharine Hamnett[12]. Profits from the t-shirts - now sold by UK online retailer ASOS[13] - are donated to Help Refugees. In 2017, Help Refugees launched series of Choose Love music event fundraisers which has included club nights hosted by electronic music website Resident Advisor[14]

In November 2017, they launched a Choose Love pop-up shop in Soho, London and accompanying website, where people could purchase essential items for refugees in the guise of Christmas presents.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Help Refugees". In less than two years, we’ve become the biggest facilitator of grassroots aid on the continent, with more than 80 projects across Europe and the Middle East.
  2. ↑ "Accidental activists: the British women on the front line of the refugee crisis". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  3. ↑ www.helprefugees.org
  4. ↑ "Guardian and Observer 2016 charity appeal raises over £1.75m". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  5. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-calais-jungle-child-refugee-numbers-migrants-syria-france-europe-a7148116.html
  6. ↑ http://www.france24.com/en/20160229-france-calais-clashes-riot-police-migrants-authorities-dismantle-part-jungle-migrant-camp
  7. ↑ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/calais-20-camps-population-left-ahead-planned-eviction-charities-warn-1587895
  8. ↑ "What's on TV tonight". The Times. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  9. ↑ Jude Law and Tom Odell head to Calais to raise the plight of refugees, Evening Standard. Retrieved 2017-15-12.
  10. ↑ Help Refugees - Providing aid and upholding dignity for refugees, @pamfoundation on Twitter. Retrieved 2017-15-12.
  11. ↑ Help Refugees: Our Shared Future, V&A. Retrieved 2017-26-11.
  12. ↑ http://www.dhpfamily.com/2015/11/paloma-faith-peace-more-to-perform-at-help-refugees-fundraising-concert/
  13. ↑ What to give the man who has everything this Christmas, The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-26-11.
  14. ↑ RA to host Help Refugees fundraiser in London with Midland, Simian Mobile Disco, Resident Advisor. Retrieved 2017-26-11.
  15. ↑ Choose Love: the shop where you can spend hundreds and walk away with nothing, The New Statesman. Retrieved 2017-26-11.
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