News and events
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!
Code club
After a well deserved summer break, our Code Club resumed for more learning about computers, programming and technology. Most of the previous cohort were present and keen to continue their adventure, but we also had a few new joiners. Our focus for the first term was to discover the world...
NEWS
February 17, 2020
Recent outreach events
Active Refugee Solidarity Panel Discussion at Kings College At the invitation of RE:action, the student refugee action group at the University of Cambridge, two CRRC volunteers shared a panel on 3 December with Steve Bedlam from Refugee Community Kitchen (RCK) to discuss their work with refugees in Northern France and...
NEWS
February 12, 2020
South Cambridgeshire welcomes new families
South Cambridgeshire District Council has agreed to accept two new refugee families this spring, in addition to three families who arrived towards the end of last year. CRRC has been helping the three new families resettled in villages near to Cambridge with small adjustments to their new homes, accessing our...
NEWS
February 10, 2020
Taekwondo
Martial Arts Uniting Lives (MAUL) contacted CRRC in early January to offer free taekwondo sessions to the refugee families at Queen Edith’s Primary School. The classes are aimed at women and children, and take place twice per week. Two refugee families attended and thoroughly enjoyed the class. Thank you very...
NEWS
February 08, 2020
DVLA consults with CRRC on driving tests
CRRC were delighted to be consulted by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) via the Strategic Migration Partnership about the challenges that refugees can face in taking the driving theory test. The DVSA are also exploring ways to simplify the Highway Code and will improve the accessibility of the...
NEWS
February 01, 2020
Seasonal family outings
During the Christmas holidays Georgina and Layla organised two fantastic days out. The first was ice skating at the Cambridge North Pole on Parker’s Piece with around 9 families. This was such good fun and the children loved it! Some were a little hesitant at first, and some threw themselves...
NEWS
January 14, 2020
Arabic classes from Kalamna
Kalamna have been offering Arabic classes in Cambridge for 5 years now, and currently run 7 classes with over 50 students. They say: we have run Arabic classes for children and adults, held social events, built up a community, held training events, and developed countless resources and materials for learning...
EVENT
January 09, 2020
(On: Jan 12)
Refugee employment project
CRRC is beginning to build an ‘employment’ volunteer network. Our refugee group comprises mostly of tradespeople, many of whom had been running their own small business, and our network of volunteers is exploring ways to help them back into their chosen work. This means getting to grips with standards of...
NEWS
January 08, 2020
Active Refugee Solidarity in Cambridge
Panel Discussion hosted by RE:action Keynes Hall, King’s College, 6-7.30pm Join us for a panel discussion with two amazing NGOs - Refugee Community Kitchen and Cambridge Refugee Resettlement Campaign. We will be giving an update about current conditions facing displaced people in Northern France, and what work is like for...
EVENT
November 23, 2019
(On: Dec 03)
Exhibition - Hiraeth
Hiraeth: the voices of young refugees and asylum seekers in Cambridgeshire 4 November – 16 December 2019, Museum of Cambridge, 2-3 Castle St, Cambridge, CB3 0AQ Hiraeth is an ‘untranslatable’ Welsh word conveying a sense of deep longing for a home which you cannot return to, or which maybe never...
EVENT
November 20, 2019
(On: Nov 04)
Winter celebration
CRRC volunteers and families are invited to a winter celebration with The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement at the University of Cambridge. They promise a quiz night with prizes, (potluck) presentations on research at the University, poetry and music to celebrate the end of the term. To...
EVENT
November 19, 2019
(On: Nov 27)
Refugee Council success
The Refugee Council launched an open letter to the Chancellor in early October on discovering that the UK Government had reneged on its pledge to continue funding to resettled refugees after Brexit. Currently, Government funding for services for resettled refugees comes through the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Immigration Fund (AMIF),...
NEWS
November 18, 2019
Supporting wellbeing
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...
NEWS
November 11, 2019
New campaign launched!
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.
NEWS
November 04, 2019
Festive-offcuts decoration workshop
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...
EVENT
November 03, 2019
(On: Nov 23)
Bike maintenance workshop
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...
NEWS
November 03, 2019
Two new families arrive
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.
NEWS
October 31, 2019
Upcoming volunteer socials
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...
EVENT
October 28, 2019
(On: Nov 06)
Driving-test success!
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...
NEWS
October 25, 2019
Driving-test campaign update
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...
NEWS
October 15, 2019
Annual report for 2018
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...
NEWS
August 12, 2019
International Organisation for Migration Training Workshop
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...
NEWS
May 09, 2019
New Social Media Volunteer
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...
NEWS
May 08, 2019
Hostile environment defeat
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...
NEWS
May 06, 2019
Talk by Abdulazez Dukhan at the University Centre
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...
NEWS
May 05, 2019
Outreach talks
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....
NEWS
May 04, 2019
Ahbab Festival
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...
NEWS
May 03, 2019
Driving-test campaign update
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...
NEWS
May 02, 2019
Easter holiday activities
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...
