If you are able to give money, please consider donating to a charity that works with refugees.
The scale of the situation, at home as well as internationally, is getting larger, and a changing focus by mainstream media and ‘donor fatigue’ means that projects are continually struggling to meet demand as the extent of humanitarian need continues to grow.
You may wish to support small charities or large ones.
You might want to help work overseas or here at home.
You might want to contribute something which relates to your own faith tradition or interests; you and your faith community will know (or will be able to decide) what is best.
You might also want to fund-raise for a specific cause or charity, perhaps as a sponsored event. This can be a fun way of doing something with other people and you also get the chance to raise awareness of the issue and your support for refugees at the same time.
Scottish Faiths Action for Refugees encourage fund-raising and financial giving to charities that have a longstanding track record and excellent reputation for their work with refugees, at home and abroad.
If you would like to support our work financially, please get in touch to find out about our latest projects.
Some organisations also collect donated goods and arrange for them to be transported and distributed. This might be for refugees in Scotland (and can include food banks), or for people overseas.
Our advice is that money can often be spent better locally rather than incur costs for storage, transport and distribution – but we know that for many people it can be a case of giving both money and donated items. And so we recommend if you are thinking about donating items:
- You should give in response to clear list of requested items – so you know that the thing you are collecting will be needed.
- The organisation doing the collection is a registered charity (do they have a charity number that you can check) – so you know that there is a process for ensuring that the donations are used for the purpose intended
- Consider if you can give money as well or instead – to bypass the costs of storage, transport, sorting and distribution