Everyone deserves a safe, secure place to call home.
Please donate to support our work with refugees locally, or read on to find out how you can take action in your community now.
Everyone deserves a safe, secure place to call home.
For many people across the world, the home they once had is no longer a safe haven for them. There can be many reasons that lead to individuals or families becoming refugees.
This Refugee Week – from 17 to 23 June – we’re asking if you can take action to support people in your local community from a refugee background.
From mums to teachers, doctors to grandparents, we work alongside people from a wide variety of backgrounds, across Greater Manchester and Lancashire to help them to settle, find support and love, and gain the knowledge, experience and skills to help them start their new life here.
Can you please help even more people to find that safe, secure place they can call home?
Read on for lots of ways you can get involved…
Why your support matters
Any of us could become a refugee at any time.
There’s so much noise in the media and in our communities about refugees, especially this year with the General Election receiving so much attention.
But, amongst the rhetoric, what many people lose sight of is that outside of the polls and soundbites there are real people with real lives that urgently need kindness, help and support.
Many of the people we work alongside who are settling in Greater Manchester and Lancashire never imagined they would be forced from the safe haven of their home; from everything they know and love; having to start again from scratch in a brand-new place, often many, many miles away from loved ones or familiarity.
However you choose to support, whether big or small, it can make a huge difference. Our latest Impact Report shows just some of the ways we’ve been there for people from a refugee background recently.
How you can get involved
There are lots of ways you can join in, including:
- The theme for Refugee Week is what ‘home’ means. Read more on this page and get in touch to tell us what home means to you
- Use the toolkits and resources on this page to hold an event or activity
- Donate or take part in a Caritas Every Step challenge to support local services
- Share our posts or news stories or join our Caritas events and activities
- Take a look at the services we provide and signpost people who may benefit
- Volunteer with our teams to help people locally.
And please do get in touch if you have any more ideas, we’d love to hear them!
We asked people to tell us what ‘home’ means to them…
“Home is being safe and free. Warmth of hearts held tenderly. Memories, feelings, treasured time. Smells of cooking, sounds of play. Thought-filled moments, no more to say. Understanding, bearing pain. When together, home’s a flame.
“Home is where I can breathe out, where I am fully myself. It’s where the laughter is, and where the tears are safe. It’s where my heart is fullest, it’s where love is in charge. It’s where I don’t feel alone. Home is my fortress.”
“Home is my family and it makes me feel warm.”
“Home is not just a place but a sanctuary for me and my family to belong and feel safe.”
What does home mean to you?
Home can be a place, a feeling, a person – or lots of other things too…
This year, the organisers of Refugee Week are asking people to share their thoughts on what ‘home’ means. We’ve been asking people at Caritas and other people in our local communities to let us know what they think.
You can read some of them above, or keep a look out on our social media channels throughout Refugee Week.
In the meantime, why not get in touch to let us know what it means to you? You could share a comment, a thought, a poem, a photo, a piece of artwork – whatever you think best portrays what home means to you.
We’d love to hear from you and share your contributions as part of our Refugee Week activity!
Get in touch now!
One of the ways you could get involved in supporting people from a refugee background is to take on a challenge as part of our Every Step campaign. Every Step is asking people to take on a challenge – whether mental or physical – that pushes them out of their comfort zone to help raise funds to support local people.
Perhaps you could do a Refugee Week themed challenge this June? From a themed read-a-thon to a sponsored swim of solidarity, a day of international dance to a sponsored cycle, bike ride or swim session. There are lots of ways you could get involved.
Click here to read more, join an existing event or pledge to do one of your own!
Where your money goes
It costs around £12,000 per day to provide the level of service and support being delivered in Caritas projects across Greater Manchester and Lancashire.
Which means that everyone who needs it is able to access urgent practical help required, as well as any advice and support that will help them for the long term.
Every single donation matters because it means nobody is turned away or left behind.
These are just some examples of how your donation could be used to provide critical support – right now – or help someone begin to transform their own life with dignity.
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£30.97could provide a refugee with an hour of professional advice and support
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£85.00could allow someone to take their English exam or provide monthly travel to their English lessons
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£107.50could fill the kitchen cupboards with items to feed a family for a week
“’On the first day of our arrival, I was afraid, I was very scared. I arrived at the airport in Manchester and we were welcomed by the group. It was a difficult feeling, I started crying but they were very welcoming…
“[The group] prepared a family atmosphere in the house. They liked the children. In the way they have welcomed us, they made us feel that exile and what we were afraid of was reduced…as if they were friends.”
Mother resettled by Caritas community sponsorship volunteers
Resources
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Refugee Week Poster
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Community sponsorship and your parish
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Compassion in your community resource
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Become a Caritas Parish Rep Leaflet
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Setting up a warm hub in your community
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Community Christmas meal: social action advice guide
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Human dignity and homelessness resource
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Your guide to becoming a volunteer at Caritas Salford
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Refugee Week 2024 Schools Resource
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Refugee Week 2024: A safe place to call home
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Fancy running for team Caritas?
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Toolkit launched to help welcome refugees to your area
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How you can help challenge poverty in your community
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Bishop John Arnold – why Every Step counts