The 4th November 2020 devastating war in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia and still raging at an unprecedented scale, has left over 70,000 refugees fleeing to the Sudan; 2.2 million internally displaced persons and 5.2 million people of the total 7 million in a dire need of humanitarian assistance. Hundreds of Tigrayan asylum seekers have arrived in the UK during the last 6 months. What looks a trickle now could suddenly turn into a flow of refugees in a very short time unless this devastating war comes to an end.
Those who have already arrived are suffering from isolation, loneliness, trauma, culture shock, congestion, financial hardship, and worthlessness. Most of them are young professionals who had been university lecturers, university students at postgraduate and undergraduate levels and civil servants.
WHEAT Mentor Support Trust, in association with Tigrayan agencies in the UK, has started a mentoring programme entitled: ‘Tigrayan Refugees Integration Project: Mentoring Young People’ with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund to support the asylum seekers. This project focuses on a one-to-one mentoring programme that will address immediate and long-term goals of each asylum seeker (mentee) with the help of experienced persons (mentors). The mentors are drawn from the refugee and migrant communities or the host society in general. Two six-month mentoring programmes are scheduled for the year 2022. Anyone who is interested in providing a mentor support to these young asylum seekers is most welcome.
WHEAT Mentor Support Trust would like to express its gratitude to National Lottery Community Fund for their generous support.
Tigrayan Refugees Integration Project (TRIP) Mentoring Programme event was held on 30 April 2022 to launch and share mentees’ and mentors’ experience.
UN Refugee Week 2014 – Forced Displacement and Migration: Time to Rethink Human Dignity?
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