Bridge2Refugees

Product Description

City of London, City of London, United Kingdom

The refugee crisis needs no lengthy introduction. We’ve all witnessed the scores of people attempting to flee war, or simply trying to make a better life for themselves. If you’re like most people, you’ve been moved to do something. But how can you know for sure that your contribution has a real and tangible impact?

There are lots of International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs) in Greece attempting to help the situation – not to mention the UNHCR. But for those of us who have worked on the ground with both, these are not as effective in helping the people in desperate need. It might come as a surprise, but they’re often money-orientated, bloated, bureaucratic and inefficient. What’s needed are small and agile teams, that have earned the trust of the refugees and the Greek authorities who are struggling to cope with the sheer volume and demand on already scarce resources.

We’re Bridge2. A charity set up by Sarah Griffith in 2005, now a mother and son team. Together with a team of volunteers, we work to answer immediately pressing issues of those in need. And for refugees, often issues are fundamental ones like food, access to clean water, medical, housing, schooling – the list varies and goes on. We get to know exactly what is required and apply all possible resources to directly provide it. No bureaucracy, no middlemen, no faffing. Because we’re a small, dedicated – and most importantly, trusted (by the Greek authorities) team, the money you donate helps us have a very quick and direct impact

Because of our successful track record and effectiveness, the Greek authorities have asked us to run a camp of between 350-400 people (numbers fluctuate with new people and people leaving) just near Veria (Veroia) in the north of Greece. We will also be helping those without a camp who are living on the streets. Here’s where you come in. To properly support the camp and those without a proper base, day in, day out, we’re asking for financial contributions for the below:

Food – the military provides a basic diet, but with the financial crisis in Greece, public services are strained. So the food provided isn’t nutritionally complete to say the least. We provide the people with a more complete diet that includes vegetables and fruit, as well as heart-warming basics such as tea and coffee.

We’ve estimated we’ll need £800 per week for the people on the camp. And about £200 per week to support the people sleeping rough. So food costs come to £1,000 per week. It’s a lot of money to raise, but there are a lot of mouths to feed.

Clothing – we try to get clothing donations where possible but at times we need to buy new items that are needed by the refugees and we haven’t been able to source through collections. So we would like a contingency for such cases.

Supplies – these include, supplies for newborn babies, baby carriers, washing powder, toothbrushes, toothpaste, condoms. Essentially these are communities (albeit makeshift) of regular people. So anything you might use in your daily life, chances are refugees will need it too.

We’ve estimated we’ll need £400 per week. To put this into context, providing washing powder for 2 weeks for the camp costs around £500. ·

Materials – we will need to purchase materials to build shelving, fix existing equipment on site and within our outreach program. We’ve stuck our finger in the air and estimated this at £500 per month.

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Up to 6000€ per month. That’s £72,000 per year.

We want to start with 6 months as a funding target and see how we go.

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All work will be documented and sent out to donors so you can see what we’re up to! We will also be approaching corporate funders who could use their CSR budgets to help us make a bigger dent and also foundations who provide funding for this stuff. We will be sharing updates on any activity of this kind as and when it arises. These are basic ongoing costs, the amounts can and will vary on an ongoing basis, funds left over for any reason will be put to good use – simple for more supplies, food or clothing, toward a new community centre, fuel costs – just some of the examples.

In the meantime, please visit www.bridge2.gg for more info on our charity. And allow us to extend a big, heartfelt thank you from Bridge2 on behalf of the people we help. Your contributions will have a very real, and immediate impact in the lives of individuals who have already, at times, suffered great hardship.

Chuffed.org are an ideal platform for our work, because we don’t need to hit our target in order to receive the donations. The communities of refugees can start benefitting from your generosity as we go along.

We started out supporting the aftermath of the Tsunami in Sri Lanka. Later we took our agile and immediate approach to help relief efforts in Haiti (earthquake), the Philippines (Typhoon), Nepal (earthquake), Calais (refugee crisis), Greece (refugee crisis) and more recently Paris (refugee crisis).

What we learned from the outset was that rather than throw money at a project or need, ultimately the best solution was to give people a way to earn a living, feel empowered, and create communities. This is why our long term goals include creating a community centre in the camp to host activities like sewing classes, music, dancing, doll making. We also have plans in the pipeline to create a band out of the music talent in the camp. The possibilities to create real communities are multiple and it all relies on the generosity of everyone to make this work.

Simply put, at Bridge2 we’re a hands-on charity run by humanitarians striving to support those who need it most. All our volunteers pay their own way. Donations made to the charity solely go to helping those in need, and don’t pay any personal expenses.

Carolina Johansson