World Refugee Week: Five Charities Helping Refugees
World Refugee Week takes place every year from 20th June launching with World Refugee Day.
Every person on this planet has a right to seek safety – whoever they are, wherever they come from and whenever they are forced to flee"
- UNHCR - UN Refugee Agency
> Half of the world’s refugees are children
> 6.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion
> There are 60,000 Ukrainian refugees in the UK
> There are 26 million refugees globally
Starting on June 20th, World Refugee Week is a time when business owners and their teams can show solidarity with refugees. A time to use business as a force for good, advocate for human rights whilst also celebrating the strength and courage of the millions of refugees who have faced war, persecution and natural disasters.
Businesses can make a big difference, and even have an ongoing impact, by fundraising for a refugee or humanitarian aid charity through sales of a product or service. This could be as simple as donating 10% of monthly invoices or 10% of monthly product sales.
Little Pig Jewellery is fundraising for the British Red Cross Ukraine Appeal to help refugees fleeing the country. She is doing this by donating £10 from every sale of her Bird of Peace brooch to the charity.
Below are five refugee and humanitarian aid charities businesses can support:
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross are part of a global network of volunteers, responding to natural disasters, conflicts and individual emergencies. Currently, Red Cross teams are working around the clock to get critical care to those in Ukraine and its bordering countries. They are also working in places like Afghanistan where more than 8 million displaced people are on the brink of famine and a million children under the age of five are at risk of dying over the next three months. Whilst every year they suppprt 40,000 children, women and men here in the UK.
Start fundraising through your business sales for British Red Cross, find out more here.
UK for UNHCR
UK for UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency’s national charity partner for the UK, building solidarity and raising funds to protect refugees worldwide. As well as protecting civilians and providing aid to refugees fleeing conflicts from places including Ukraine, Yemen and Syria. They help communities return, rebuild and restore hope after conflict. Donations from businesses will help to make the charities life-saving work possible – only 1% of UK for UNHCR’s budget comes from the UN.
Fundraise through your business sales for UK for UNHCR, find out more here.
Refugee Action
Refugee Action have a vision of a UK which welcomes refugees and helps them to live free from poverty and rebuild their lives. As well as providing direct support to refugees and people seeking asylum, the charity tackles the root causes of the challenges people face by campaigning for systemic change and supporting other charities to reach people as early as possible.
Start fundraising through your business sales for Refugee Action, find out more here.
forRefugees
forRefugees use donations to support local grassroots partners supporting communities of refugees facing extreme hardship in Europe. These small, often voluntary organisations include sea rescue organisations to humanitarian aid distributions. Currently ForRefugees is supporting 50 organisations with grants that provide a broad range of much needed essentials from legal services to helping buy tarpaulin to sleep under or even shoes.
Start fundraising through your business sales for forRefugees, find out more here.
We are volunteers. We chop. We stir. We serve. We believe food is a human right. Everyone deserves food that we’d be happy to eat at our own tables.”
Refugee Community Kitchen
Refugee Community Kitchen
Refugee Community Kitchen serves nourishing food to displaced people in the UK & France. In May 2022 the volunteers in France served 8,335 hot, nutritious meals to displaced people in Calais and Dunkirk alone. The charity also serves hot meals in London and Edinburgh to an increasing number of homeless people, including many refugees. The food is made from produce that would otherwise be discarded by local businesses.
Start fundraising through your sales for Refugee Community Kitchen, find out more here.
