Crowdfunder to help reach out to refugees in Europe

Crisis Classroom, a Brighton-based community-interest company, said its volunteers will leave Brighton on February 20, to travel along the refugee route of Europe with their mobile school to find out what migrants and refugees settling into life in Europe need, how those needs are being met and what the Brighton community can do to help.

After spending a year teaching and learning in the Calais refugee camp in 2015/16, Crisis Classroom co-founders Kate McAllister and Darren Abrahams now train volunteers to deliver education to those who cannot get to school in new and creative ways with their mobile school.

The training programme prepares volunteers to offer lessons and workshops in everything from languages to Taekwondo, from coding to cooking.

The pair said students often go on to become volunteer educators themselves, ensuring the learning is a mutually-beneficial exchange that brings communities closer and creates pathways into friendships, further education, employment and training.

Criosis Classroom is now asking Brighton businesses and residents to help power its latest project through crowdfunding.

Darren said: “By pledging your support for this project, you will power our journey across Europe, build new relationships and connections across the continent and take your skills out into the world. This is a people powered response to an immediate problem. We believe that together we can find a way to Make Room for everyone and thrive as a result.”

Kate said: “Currently, 65.8 million people in the world are displaced. They’re temporary, moving and waiting, sometimes for generations. Some people are permanently temporary. Although we can’t solve all their problems, we can at the very least equip people with extra skills, knowledge, advice, and guidance so that when they settle somewhere they want to call home, they are ready to make the best of it.”

To find out more about Crisis Classroom, visit: www.crisisclassroom.com