We are a charity based in Deptford, South East London, providing various services aimed at helping refugees and asylum seekers to overcome some of the many barriers they are faced with when trying to build a life in the UK.
Our services are tailored to try to best meet the needs of those who are most vulnerable and lacking the means to improve their situation without professional support, but for whom financial hardship often stands in the way of their accessing the help and representation that they need - particularly in cases relating to immigration.
In addition to the advice services we provide in the areas of immigration, housing, welfare, training and employment, we also have a women's project which works specifically with women who have experienced gender-based violence either before coming to the UK, whilst travelling here, or since having arrived. The project takes a holistic approach in its work with the women, by delivering services that aspire to meet both their emotional and practical needs, and provides opportunities for socialising, as well as therapeutic intervention.
We also run creative projects - sewing classes and a gardening project, for example - aimed at giving those who access our services the opportunity to learn new skills, or share and develop exising ones, meet others and make friends, and be creative in a welcoming and supportive environment.
As an organisation, we try to engage those who are most in need among the refugee, asylum seeking and migrant population. We are based in an area of greater London with a very large multi-ethnic and diverse community, and services which are committed to identifying and addressing the needs specific to those communities and the people within them are not high in number. Many people who contact us explain that they've had nowhere else to turn, and other advice agencies are often without the access to interpreters or resources to enable them to see the people who we strive to be able to help.
Our organisation was initially set-up in response to the feeling that there was a gap in existing services for meeting the needs of the refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant communities living in and around the borough of Lewisham, and we believe that to a great extent ours remains a unique service in the area, and therefore a vital one for those who access it.
The main services that LRMN provides are
- Free and confidential immigration advice
- Welfare advice, covering the areas of housing, health, education, employment and benefits
- A dedicated hardship fund which can be accessed by clients who are destitute in times of emergency or in particular need
- A weekly women’s group for refugee and asylum seeking women who have been victims of gender-based violence, as well as one-to-one counselling
- A young carer’s project to support young refugees and migrants who are acting as carers for one or more members of their family.
- Advocacy and signposting
- ESOL and literacy classes for learners of all levels
- Sewing and knitting classes
- A gardening project
All of our services are free of charge and open to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants living in or outside of the South-East London borough of Lewisham.
