Refugee Women’s Association works to empower and enable refugee, migrant and asylum-seeking women with their journey. Here, the organisation shares how funding through Rosa’s Covid-19 Response Fund (Small Grants) helped them to adapt to meet the increased needs of women during the pandemic.
What kind of support does Refugee Women’s Association offer?
We work with asylum-seeking women and migrant women, so our work is very specialised. Women come to the UK and have no knowledge of the system. Our team supports them through the long journey while they wait to hear from the Home Office. There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty, but many of our staff are refugees so they know what women go through.
Any time you arrive in a new country you face your own difficulties – a new system, a new culture, and isolation from family and friends. On top of that, the women we support are in a waiting game with the Home Office. The Home Office plays with people’s destitution and gives people refugee status without recourse to public funds. This has a detrimental effect on people’s health and wellbeing – particularly that of mothers and children.
At Refugee Women’s Association we do everything we can to help these women and their children. We share responsibility with those who come to us for help. By building resilience and confidence, they can take responsibility and feel like they’ve achieved something.
How have women’s needs changed during the pandemic?
During the pandemic we’ve seen so many cases of women who’ve lost their jobs in the hospitality sector or as cleaners. They come to us for help applying to the Home Office for a change of condition. The refugee women who come to us don’t tend to have the technology to upload their documents for the Home Office. We had to keep our office open three days a week so we could continue helping them. Phoning clients to simply say ‘we’re here for you’ has been another big part of our work during the pandemic.
If there’s a service we can’t provide, like counselling, we refer women to agencies in our network. Our priority is to make sure we connect women to counsellors who speak their language. These referrals help women to know they’re in safe hands. They trust us from day one and talk to us about things you wouldn’t imagine they’d talk about.
How has funding helped?
Funding has enabled us to hire a dedicated member of staff to help women find employment at this difficult time. It’s also helped us to simply keep the organisation going. It’s made an amazing difference. This grant helped us to increase our income massively by freeing us up to apply for more funds.
Can you share a story of a woman you’ve supported?
One client was referred to us some time ago by London Metropolitan University. She was a doctor in her home country. She was referred to us for help gaining the English language qualifications she needed to register with the General Medical Council in the UK. As she spoke, I realised there was much more to her story. She had experienced severe domestic violence by her ex-husband. We rallied to help her. We worked on her benefits, helped her daughter who had health problems, talked to social services, put her in contact with mental health services, and supported her through multiple court cases instigated by her ex-husband.
Next, we referred her to Crisis who provided specialist language courses for unemployed doctors. She passed her initial exams and we fundraised £1,000 for her to take a final exam. We were still going through court proceedings while the exams were going on, so it was a difficult time. She passed the final exam, though, and a few months later registered with the General Medical Council. We were able to put her in touch with a consultant who offered her work experience. Now, she’s working as a doctor. When we caught up recently, she said ‘it’s all because of you. You stood behind me and helped me and I have made it because I didn’t want to let you or myself down.’
What does the future look like for Refugee Women’s Association, and the women you support?
Right now, our feeling is that needs will continue to grow. More women who’ve been controlled by their partners during lockdown, for example, may start reaching out for help. One thing we’ve seen is women feeling restricted on phone calls due to partners or children being around. For us as an organisation, there’s a real need for training on different aspects we might be missing out on, like immigration specialisms. In January we’re also excited to start offering remote ESOL classes, which combine teaching English and social networking for the women.
When it comes to funding, a lot of funders are giving grants until the end of March. But what happens beyond March? Ninety percent of organisations will say the same. It takes a long time to support a client in their journey because our support is so specialised. You can’t just leave a woman at a specific date and say ‘sorry, funding has ended’.
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