{"id":10183,"date":"2015-09-08T11:24:11","date_gmt":"2015-09-08T10:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/?p=10183"},"modified":"2015-09-08T11:24:11","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T10:24:11","slug":"refugee-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/2015\/09\/refugee-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugee Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Taken from a blog by Ben Gilchrist:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The unfolding refugee crisis in Europe has hit the headlines in the last week. I\u2019m sure like me many people feel deeply disturbed and a bit helpless in the face of the plight of those seeking sanctuary in Europe. So I thought it would be helpful to share some information about what we can do in response.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/boaztrust.org.uk\/2015\/09\/04\/engage-support-asylum-seekers-and-refugees\/\">Boaz Trust<\/a>\u00a0(a Manchester based charity) have an excellent summary of the practical things we can all do, just click on the link.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.refugee-action.org.uk\/about\/blog\/1981_heres_how_you_can_help_refugees\">Refugee Action<\/a>\u00a0as a national charity work across Greater Manchester including on the scheme that the government looks likely to use as a means to increase the number of refugees coming to live in the UK. They are a great source of information and have their own petition on the issues involved and a comprehensive list of ways that you can help.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.citizensuk.org\/save_lives_by_helping_resettle_refugees\">Citizens UK<\/a>\u00a0have been doing some great work in response, and they suggest three ways you can help (for more information, contact\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:george.gabriel@citizensuk.org\">George Gabriel<\/a>):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Offer to welcome a refugee to your community and find them a safe home &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/secure.avaaz.org\/en\/uk_refugees_volunteer_thank_you_3\/\">sign up here.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ask your council to resettle 50 refugees &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:http:\/\/www.citizensuk.org\/training\">sign up for a training event here.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ask your MP to up the UK resettlement quota &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/mps-lords-and-offices\/mps\/\">find their contact details here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In Tameside why not get in touch with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tararefugee.co.uk\/\">TARA<\/a>\u00a0a leading charity who have been working with refugees for over a decade? Also\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.westafricandevelopment.org.uk\/\">West African Development<\/a>\u00a0work with refugees in Tameside and we know that local churches have run projects in the past so there are plenty of local people and groups who are practically making a difference.<\/p>\n<p>There are lots of good petitions which we can add our voices to.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/petition.parliament.uk\/petitions\/105991\">The one on the Government\u2019s website<\/a>\u00a0has been signed by more than 425,000 which means they have to publish an official response and consider organising a debate in Parliament on the issue which shows how our collective voice can make a quick impact. Closer to home the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/you.38degrees.org.uk\/petitions\/refugees-welcome-in-tameside\">petition urging Tameside Council to play its part<\/a>\u00a0is a great way for local leaders to show they are ready to respond &#8211; if 50 councils each pledge to resettle 50 refugees, we will transform 2,500 lives.<\/p>\n<p>As you\u2019ll have heard me say before, I\u2019m always convinced that we can make a difference, just look at the change in the Government\u2019s approach in the last week. So why not engage with the issue and join the conversation? Could you help counter the unhelpful headlines and speak out for a fairer system, compassion and a humanitarian response? I hope the answer\u2019s yes. Do get in touch to let us know what you are doing and helpful resources you are using or creating.<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-10183\" data-postid=\"10183\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-10183 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ways that we can do our part to help the refugee crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"xn-wppe-expiration":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-action":[],"xn-wppe-expiration-prefix":[],"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3cThd-2Ef","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10184,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10183\/revisions\/10184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanel.org.uk\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}