2019 Simple Acts Highlights

This Refugee Week we invited you to do one of 7 Simple Acts to explore our theme of ‘You, me and those who came before’.

We hoped that by each doing something small, together we could help make new connections in our communities, gain a better understanding of refugee experiences and show solidarity and support to newcomers to the UK. Your responses were amazing! 

You shared recipes and food, made messages of welcome at your schools. You wrote poems, you listened and danced to the Refugee Week playlist! You investigated your own family history, and you shared stories about people who have sought refuge in the UK, to help us imagine life through their eyes. And through books, films and uncovering hidden histories, you heard (and told) a different story about refugees.

You can take part in Simple Acts at any time of year. Why not do one at home, school, your workplace (or anywhere else) later today? Visit the Simple Acts page to find out more.

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Competition time! We are giving away x4 sets of these three children’s books that explore themes of home, journeys and migration. See details below on how to enter (closing date: 25 October 2019).

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Ambassadors 2020

Our Refugee Week Ambassadors

This year we had an amazing group of Refugee Week Ambassadors who are passionate about working to change attitudes and perceptions around refugees by sharing their stories and talking to the media. You can read some of their blog posts on the Huffington Post here.

All our Ambassadors are from refugee, asylum seeking or migrant backgrounds. If you are interested in being an Ambassador for 2020 then please get in touch with us.

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You, Me and Those Who Came Before: Legacy and Beyond.

Guest Post: Sabrina Richmond is a performer and writer and in her role as a Refugee Week Leader, she is the Globe’s Artist in Residence during Refugee Week. In this blog Sabrina talks about what home means to her […]

Singing out lives

Guest post: Singing our lives is is a ground-breaking creative process bringing together singers and musicians form refugee, migrant and local UK backgrounds to compose and perform new music together. Read more about their work and upcoming performance for Refugee Week at the Southbank Centre on 23rd June […]

Guest post: Inclusion begins in our communities: read more about how IOM UK are marking Refugee Week with an event at Bristol City Hall on 19th June, 5.30-7pm […]

 Sink wihtout trace

Guest post: The T06411 is a North African migrant boat named after the official code given by Italian customs when it was seized close to Lampedusa in 2012, with 36 migrants on board. The boat is moored in London this Refugee Week as part of a ‘floating installation’ by artist Lucy Wood.  Read more about her incredible journey and creative process here[…] 

Refugee Week partner up with language providers Rosetta Stone who will donate language courses to over 1000 refugees this Refugee Week. Read more about this exciting initiative here.

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Guest post: Over the last two years St Joseph’s Cathedral Primary School, Swansea has been working on themes involving, migration, belonging and looking at the challenges and difficulties faced by Asylum seekers and Refugees. Here they tell us about their collaboration with Swansea City of Sanctuary and why they are being awarded a ‘Schools of Sanctuary Status’ for their work […]
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Guest post: Refugee Week Ambassador Fatima Esayli is a young Sudanese woman, now pursuing her dreams to become an architect after arriving in the UK as a refugee at the age of 22. She talks here about how she has been able to discover herself and find a home outside of the place she was born […]
FESTIVAL BY THE LAKE FB HEADER 2019
Guest post: Polly Gifford, member of the Hastings Supports Refugees group and organiser of Festival by the Lake, tells us more about their programme for this Refugee Week and how the festival has more than doubled in size since it began in 2016 […]

Guest post: Nosy Crow children’s author Karen McCombie tells us about Scotland’s forgotten history of the Highland Clearances, when thousands of Highlanders were displaced from their homes during the 18th and 19th centuries […]

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Guest post: Meet Pam, an activist in exile and one of our new 2019 Refugee Week Ambassadors

As an activist for political freedom in her native Thailand, Pam was an outspoken student critic of the junta regime. Because of this she was mistreated, jailed and persecuted. Pam is now an activist in exile and has been living in the UK with refugee status since 2016. She works with Refugee Week partner STAR (Student Action for Refugees) as their Communication and Campaign Volunteer Officer, working to improve how we welcome students from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds here in Britain. She has written a blog for us about her work, and how volunteering in the Refugee Sector transformed her life as a refugee in the UK […]