The charity’s objects are:
For the relief of those granted refugee status and their dependents, or those seeking asylum (temporarily or permanently) in Kent:
To advance the education of the public in general about the rights and needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
Tonbridge Welcomes Refugees is a group of local people who came together in September 2015 as a response to the worsening refugee crisis. We became a registered charity in July 2017.
Run entirely by volunteers, our common goal is to work with refugee families moving to Tonbridge and Maidstone from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Sudan, to welcome and support them in their new homes.
We help by offering friendship, English language teaching and conversation classes, sourcing and providing essential household and other items, helping to organise local outings and social events and making small hardship grants when appropriate.
We also do outreach work to raise public awareness of refugee and asylum issues, and have run a number of assemblies and talks in local schools, churches and local groups.
Plus, we run events to fundraise for funds to help refugee families settle in the community.
