Advent
Will you help refugee families with vital support this Advent?
Love crossed every border the first Christmas
Dear friends,
Will you provide families in the asylum system with essential support this winter?
My name is Victoria B. I have two sons and we came to the UK in 2012 to seek safety for my eldest.
We come from West Africa. My son is disabled, and beginning when he was two years old, he was repeatedly kidnapped for rituals. If the police were bribed, they wouldn’t take action. Again and again, we had to rescue him ourselves. Eventually, I made the decision to leave everything behind and seek safety for us elsewhere.
As a mother, all of this was heart breaking, and thinking about it today still makes me sad. Sometimes, feeling like I couldn’t protect him, I felt less like a mother. Even though he is an adult now, I still fear for his safety when I’m not with him.
The support you get even when you have children in the asylum system simply isn’t enough, and I wasn’t allowed to work to support us. I had to visit charities to have enough food and to pick up clothing to look after my family; to feed us and to be clothed with dignity, or warmly in the winter.
Then I found JRS UK, where we can access vital support – food, clothes, and toiletries. I am part of the volunteer cooking team, and I’m often asked to cook when we are welcoming important guests! It makes me happy to see people eating my food.
We were rejected for asylum over and over, sometimes waiting years to hear the outcome of our case. My sons are grown now and have their own asylum applications. I’ve lost support, and I’m sofa surfing again, dependent on the goodwill of a friend from my mosque.
I can’t wait for my children’s cases to be resolved: then they will be able to earn and support themselves – buy food and clothing. Most importantly, they’ll be able to have a safe place to stay, and have access to medical care.
Your support means everything. It gives me and my family access to food, clothes, and toiletries, which we can’t buy ourselves. It also gives us financial assistance to buy essentials we need, or to travel to appointments. Winter is coming, and I know I’ll be able to access warm clothing, hats, gloves, and scarves. It’s nice being able to wear good quality clothing: I don’t want shabby clothing to always identify me as someone different.
I’m so grateful for your help. May God Almighty bless you. I believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This period of my life is dark right now, but I have faith things will turn out for the better.
Thank you, and wishing you a blessed Advent,
Victoria B
Together Winter 2025 out now!
This special extended edition shares the voices of families in the asylum system, Advent reflections on the flight of the Holy Family and the response of Catholics to forced displacement, and commentary on the pause on family reunifications.
If you’d like to request copies of this edition or sign up to receive bulk copies of all newsletters moving forward, email uk.outreach@jrs.net.
Want a poster for your parish or your home?
Download and print yourself or contact us at uk.outreach@jrs.net to request an A3 copy
Take action as a parish
Want to take action as a parish or community? Find ideas for action, including sample reflections, tips on how to organise a collection, and more, in our Parish Activity Pack.
Pray together
Want to bring refugees into your prayer life? Find ideas for personal prayer, group prayer, and prayers of intercession in our new Praying with Refugees resource.
