The Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign arranges and participates in a range of activities through the year, and of course there is regularly news that relates to our activities. This page lists some of these news items and events. If you hear of something you think we should know, please do get in touch!
CRRC recognises that all refugees have experienced considerable trauma and may continue to do so even once housed and set up in the UK. To address this, CRRC trustee and psychologist Ann Goodridge and Susan Mealing of the Refugee Council have designed a half-day workshop to help volunteers interpret what...
We have launched a new fundraising campaign to pay for driving lessons for any of our refugee friends who have passed their theory test. If you’d like to find out more, or to help us raise money to help, check out the dedicated campaign page.
Fellow local refugee-supporting charity CamCRAG is running a free craft workshop making Christmas tree decorations out of fabric offcuts. The decorations will be sold to raise funds for CamCRAG’s Poncho Project at Mill Rd Winter Fair, although participants will be given patterns and any surplus to keep. No sewing skills...
The bike experts at OWL ran another bike maintenance workshop for our families on Monday 21st October. There were ten participants, three adults and seven children, all keen to learn how to keep their bikes working. One family brought four bikes, three of which were repaired and brought up to...
‘Datafied Refuge: Digital Boundaries for a Life in Refuge’ is a workshop taking a rights-based approach to refugee-centred technologies. The workshop will take place between 4pm and 5.30pm, at Michaelhouse Cafe, Trinity St. For more information, please see the event website.
Hosted by Pembroke College, this panel discussion will focus on the issue of providing safe havens for academics at risk. Jointly organised with CARA, the Council for At-Risk Academics, speakers include refugee scholars, CARA patron Baroness Onora O’Neill and CARA executive director Stephen Wordsworth. The discussion at 6pm and drinks...
Two new families have arrived in Cambridge since September. One is a family of five, with three small children, the other is a family of four, with three teenagers. Both are being housed in South Cambridgeshire.
We love and appreciate our volunteers, and we want to see more of you! New and old volunteers meet regularly on the first Wednesday of every month between 7.30 and 9.30pm. The next social (at time of writing!) is on Wednesday the 6th of November, and the one after that...
Ahmed, who is just starting university and is the eldest child of one of our beneficiary families, recently became the first member of any of Cambridge’s resettled refugee families to pass his UK driving test. Many congratulations, Ahmed! Several others have now sat and passed their theory tests, although the...
In March this year, Trustee Adrian Matthews launched a UK Government petition to reverse the decision to abolish language support for driving-test candidates. This was accompanied by a letter-writing campaign to local MPs. NE Cambs MP Lucy Frazer responded to her constituent’s letters by contacting the Minister for Transport, Jesse...
This might seem a bit late but, with the launch of this new website in mid-2019, we can more easily release our annual reports and other news. So, you can now read our full annual report for the year to June 2018 (2.8 MB PDF file). Here’s a taster of...
The International Organisation for Migration is the UN’s agency charged with helping refugees who have been approved for resettlement with cultural adjustment before they are flown to their new homes. In a workshop evening session on 21 February, IOM trainers Meredith and Ahmed explained how little time they were given...
The Communications team are delighted to be joined by Kay, who will be taking over the CRRC Twitter feed management from Sarah. She is keen to encourage any CRRC volunteers to send her any news items, campaigns, images or events you would like shared. You can contact her here. Members...
A key plank of Theresa May’s Hostile Environment immigration policy, the Right to Rent scheme, was declared unlawful in a ruling handed down by Mr Justice Spencer at the High Court in early March. He said: It is my view that the Scheme introduced by the Government does not merely...
On 14 April, CRRC co-hosted a talk at the University Centre by Abdulazez Dukhan, a young Syrian refugee committed to telling the refugee story ‘through refugee eyes’. This was part of a UK-wide speaking tour arranged by Safe Passage for Abdulazez, and was attended by almost 100 people. He was...
CRRC’s Trustees have been out and about raising awareness of refugee issues around the area. Sue, Adrian and Dan gave an illustrated talk at Comberton Village College in February, which was so well received that they have been invited to Shelford Library to give the same talk on 26 June....
The fourth annual Ahbab Festival took place on the 15th, 16th and 17th February at Cambridge Junction, celebrating Middle Eastern and North African culture. The Festival brought together an array of musical performances including the Baladi Blues Ensemble, the Ayoub Sisters and Amira Kheir, as well as screenings of the...
CRRC’s campaign to persuade the Government to reinstate language support for the driving test has seen a flurry of activity over the past two months. Our petition hit its first major milestone in March when signatures topped the 1000 mark. It has now garnered over 2000 signatures, many more than...
The start of the Easter holidays saw a large group of about 40 spend a fascinating (if slightly scary!) day on 8 April visiting the Sedgwick Museum on the Downing site. The children were given worksheets and activities and had a wonderful time getting to know the dinosaurs and fossils...