Asylum Welcome benefits from extraordinary support from local schools. Never has this been more apparent than during these last months. Many school communities – children, teachers, staff, parents and carers – have fundraised, collected food donations, and offered a range of support to our clients and the new Afghan arrivals. Thank you to you all!
Welcoming the Afghan arrivals
A number of schools have taken in the new young arrivals from Afghanistan – girls and boys, of primary and secondary age. The schools have done an amazing job in helping to settle the new pupils in and to make them feel welcome, supporting the families, sourcing uniforms, and helping us to gather necessary items and to fundraise. You know who you are, and we
appreciate you so much!
Donating funds and items for the new Afghan arrivals
Garsington Primary School managed to gather and contribute nine full bags of warm coats,
school backpacks and other items in just three days, in response to a specific request. These
items were distributed to the young arrivals, helping to ease their transition into school and
to keep them warm during the cold months ahead.
Great Milton Primary School has been fundraising for us, has sourced uniforms, and has
done so much more too.
A group of parents from Larkrise Primary School have been coordinating, collecting and
delivering items to the new arrivals, as well as raising funds and sharing our Amazon wish
list widely.
Rose Hill Primary School had a stall for Asylum Welcome at their Autumn Fete, raising funds
and spreading the word about Asylum Welcome’s work.
St Edward’s School raised an astonishing £8,994 plus Gift Aid through its Steeplechase
event. For the first time in the school’s history, the Steeplechase (which officially began in
1927) was a sponsored event. The school has been an amazing supporter of Asylum
Welcome, including donating and delivering Christmas gift parcels to our clients in 2020.
Food bank donations
Windmill Primary School collected enough food and toiletries to fill two carloads! The
school is planning a fundraiser too, to raise funds for our work with the new Afghan arrivals.
Botley School responded to a request for support with an amazing collection of food
donations, including some wonderful pumpkins!
St Andrew’s Primary School, Chandlings, and Magdalen College School also provided loads
of donations for the food bank.
Our food bank now supports around 100 people every week who are struggling to feed themselves and their families. The donations will make such a big difference to so many people’s lives.
Other exciting school partnerships
St Barnabas Primary School and St Gregory the Great are our school partners for the Little Amal Project, run jointly by The Story Museum and Asylum Welcome. This project is training young refugees as Story Guides and running educational sessions for school children – many of whom come from refugee backgrounds. We are thrilled to be working with these schools.
Magdalen College School recently chose Asylum Welcome as its official charity partner for the year! This is incredible news for the charity, and we cannot wait to work closer with the MCS community. The school pupils have already been writing messages of support to our clients and the school has supported us in other ways, including donating second-hand
laptops that have been refurbished and distributed to our clients.
Thank you so much to all the school communities listed here and to others that are supporting us. We are so grateful to you all! A shout-out too to our wonderful young fundraisers including Isa, age 8 (who raised over £150 through her cake sale!), and Amia and Ellie Guha – high school students and our first Student Ambassadors! The girls have raised loads through fundraising events and are doing so much to engage their local school communities with refugee issues.
