The JRS UK weekly drop-in Day Centre remains closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. The JRS UK Emergency Response Team continues to distribute food parcels and hygiene packs to the most vulnerable refugee friends we support, taking the essential help from our Day Centre out onto the road.
JRS UK continues to find new and creative ways to continue to accompany, serve and advocate for refugee friends, but this requires extra funding and support which is why we have set up our refugee friends’ hardship fund.
Donate to our hardship fund now
While the world is beginning to open-up and adapt to ‘new normals’, our refugee friends are still experiencing many of the difficulties as a result of being destitute. The effects of social distancing, remote working and the temporary closure of face-to-face services have left refugee friends feeling even more isolated and afraid, and more in need of practical support than ever.
This is why it is so important that, with your help, JRS UK continues to support refugees as best we can adapting and responding as the public health guidance demands.
By donating today you will help us to fund our Emergency Response Team which continues this vital support by:
- Distributing crisis hardship grants remotely
- Delivering regular food parcels
- Delivering toiletries for hygiene and to help combat the virus.
- Distributing mobile phone top-ups to help combat isolation and connect with JRS and other services
- Offering proactive phone support, reaching out to isolated refugee friends, including those in immigration detention, connecting them with our team of staff and volunteers to provide updates, friendship and advice
- Providing legal advice for their case via our dedicated legal team, over the phone, email, and post; continuing to move forward their claims and clarifying their access to other services in this difficult time
- Helping our most vulnerable friends, due to age and health, avoid street homeless and shield themselves from the spread of the virus through advice, referrals and support
- Providing ongoing support to hosts in our ‘At Home’ hosting scheme who are currently housing a refugee friend who would otherwise be homeless
- Finding new creative ways to connect and maintain a sense of community with refugee friends over the phone and on Zoom
“The coronavirus pandemic is scary and lockdown is still difficult. JRS makes it a little better. I know I can call anytime to ask for support, and they’ll do their best. Sometimes it’s just for a chat, sometimes it’s to arrange for a food parcel delivery. Knowing that there are people there to help us and who care makes things easier to face.”
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JRS UK continues to adapt our services to the continuously shifting situation. Thanks to technology we will are able to stay in touch and provide virtual spaces for support, friendship and prayer, but we will be relying on your help.
Today, please give generously to our Refugee Friends’ Hardship Fund so that JRS UK can continue to accompany our refugee friends.
More than ever before, we will be leaning on your prayers so that our refugee friends, who have already been left destitute by an unjust asylum system, will feel safe and supported by the JRS family.
