News > Newsletters > Refugee Week Update - June 2010
Refugee Week Update - June 2010
Welcome to the Update for June. It’s only two weeks until Refugee Week and there’s loads of stuff happening so make sure you visit our Events Calendar to find some cool events.
News Bulletin
Refugee Week Update - June 2010
Welcome to the Update for June. It’s only two weeks until Refugee Week and there’s loads of stuff happening so make sure you visit our Events Calendar to find some cool events.
UNHCR join the Refugee Week Consortium!
We’re very pleased to announce that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has this week re-joined the Refugee Week consortium. UNHCR was one of the original agencies that initiated Refugee Week as a national programme of events back in 1998 and we are very pleased that it can lend its support to the programme once again.
UNHCR has also produced a bunch of lovely posters for World Refugee Day (20th June), which you can see at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4c04bc966.html
If you or your organisation would like a set of posters, please contact UNHCR London (gbrloea@unhcr.org ) indicating which one (or the series of three) and the required quantity you desire.
Refugee Week T-Shirts available
As promised this newsletter is filled with pretty pictures of our new T-shirts. Nice huh?
You can find all six designs on the Refugee Week shop, along with banners, badges, balloons and posters.
All Refugee Week T-shirts are made by American Apparel, a progressive LA based company that guarantees sweatshop free products. American Apparel are currently campaigning for immigration reform and speaking out for the human rights of immigrants.
The link to the Refugee Week shop is here: http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk/shop
Simple Act of the Month – Play football with refugees
In two weeks time a really exciting event takes place which will bring together lots of different people from all over the world to celebrate, learn and party. Yes, it’s the World Cup. Unless you’ve been living in a cave lately you’ll have noticed that June is all about football.
The fact that the World Cup kicks off at the same as Refugee Week suits us fine ‘cos it makes a perfect excuse to encourage you and your friends to get out and play a game of football with refugees.
To make things easy for you we’ve put together a list of Refugee Week football events taking place up and down the country – there’s bound to be one near you!
Check them out on the Simple Act of the Month page
Appeal to save Refugee and Migrant Justice.
A number of charities including the Refugee Council, Amnesty International, Liberty and Barnado’s have joined faith leaders such as Dr Rowan Williams and senior legal and human rights experts in an appeal to save Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) from risk of closure because of long delays in payment for work already done.
An open letter has been sent to the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke and the Home Secretary Theresa May, warning that thousands of vulnerable people will be left without legal help unless RMJ is paid promptly for its work. "No charity can be expected to wait six months or more for the money it is owed, and no private sector organisation will be able to replace RMJ's longstanding commitment to those with the greatest needs” the letter states.
How you can help
RMJ are calling for supporters to download and send a letter template to their local MPs, and have produced a campaign leaflet which has more information about the issues. You can find it at http://refugee-migrant-justice.org.uk/downloads/Save%20RMJ%20information%20leaflet.pdf
If you would like any information about the campaign, or would like to know how you can help, please get in touch with Kathleen Commons at kcommons@rmj.org.uk, 020 7780 3271, or 0787 216 1271.
Click here to see how this news has been covered in the Observer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/30/asylum-refugee-migrant-justice
