Manchester Refugee Support Network

MRSN is providing an essential service for displaced people in The Moss side area, Greater Manchester, and all across the North West. After being forced to flee their home country due to unbearable oppression and/or unimaginable horrors, many refugees understandably struggle to integrate successfully into their new home. with little to no knowledge of the country's expectations of its citizens nor the assistance they are entitled to, and often with little or no grasp of the English language. Not to mention the fact that far too many areas of Britain and its press seem to implausibly resent the country's new arrivals, and the refugees again face the type of discrimination they fled their country to escape, and it's too easy to feel isolated from your new community. With minimal government assistance, many of these refugees fall into homelessness or deprivation.



MRSN aims to counteract this by providing Manchester with a friendly and welcoming face, ensuring that these people realise that there is a real chance of them finding success in their new home country. MRSN holds two drop-in services a week for refugees to seek help and advice on life in the UK, with three other days reserved for specialised appointments concerning immigration, benefits and asylum. MRSN strives to ensure that every refugee is aware of both what is required of them as a British citizen and what exactly they are entitled to, along with being entirely aware of their rights. If these refugees are aware of all the opportunities open to them, they will be more likely to fulfil their full potential as profitable members of society.



MRSN also strives to give refugees and asylum seekers a prominent voice in the community to empower them to represent their needs and aspirations, and also it builds strong and vibrant refugee community organisations. All of this in turn plays a strong part in educating the wider community about the refugees' issues and needs, inspiring a more hospitable environment and tackling negative media portrayal.



MRSN is a charity and so depends upon the generosity of people like you in order to stay afloat. We are currently running at bare bones and the help we have the capacity to offer is currently massively oversubscribed, with us having to turn away dozens of refugees every day because we don’t have the resources to help them. With your money, we would be able to fund more staff, including a full time receptionist and more advisors, plus an actual fundraising manager who’d be able to guarantee the charity’s continued existence. We would be able to improve the pokey little office we are currently forced to work out of into a far more suitable place to help Manchester’s refugee population. We would be able to extend our current popular services like the Health and Wellbeing project (twice Spirit of Manchester award winning), the Integration service and Employment Support to better accommodate as many refugee clients as possible. We would be able to offer new services such as English language and even a proposed scheme to give refugees and asylum seekers free bicycles.

 

However much you’re able to give will be greatly appreciated