Refugee Aware is not currently a registered charity. Why that matters
We’re reorganising

Refugee Aware is reorganising around free sessions for schools. Sessions start after February half-term 2027. Schools can book now, and we’re looking for volunteer speakers.

Refugee Aware in Schools · Free

Everyone has a story of home. Some people had to leave theirs.

Refugee Aware has run free workshops on refugees since 2007. Our school sessions bring a volunteer speaker into your classroom or assembly: someone who has had to leave home, or who has worked closely alongside people who have, with a trained facilitator, a lesson plan and a follow-up activity. Free for primary and secondary schools in Havering and east London.

Book a free session Volunteer with us

Three sessions, one for each age

Every session is free. A facilitator runs it with a volunteer speaker, or with a filmed testimony when no speaker is available. Pupils learn who refugees are, hear one real story, and finish with something they can do.

Primary · Key Stage 2

Stories of Home

50–60 minutes for one class. What makes a home, why some people have to leave theirs, a speaker’s story, pupils’ questions, and a class welcome activity.

Secondary · Key Stages 3–4

Beyond the Headlines

50–60 minutes for one class. What the news leaves out about people who seek refuge: the facts, a speaker, open questions, and a short follow-up task.

Assembly · Any age

A Place to Call Home

20–30 minutes for a year group or the whole school. A shorter story, three facts and a question to take home. Ideal for Refugee Week in June.

Every session includes

  • A DBS-checked facilitator
  • A volunteer speaker or a filmed testimony, shared with consent
  • Facts with sources, and no invented figures
  • A teacher pack with the plan and a follow-up activity
  • A short feedback form so we keep improving

How we keep everyone safe

  • A teacher stays in the room throughout
  • Speakers choose what they share and can stop at any time
  • Questions go through the facilitator
  • We never take photos of pupils

Book a free session

Tell us what you’d like and when. Sessions start after February half-term 2027; we’ll reply within a week to agree a date. There’s no charge, now or later.

Phase
What would you like?

Volunteer with us

Our school sessions run on volunteers. There are three ways to help in the classroom, and we’re also looking for two committee members.

Lived experience

Share your story

You’ve been a refugee or sought asylum. You choose what you share and can stop at any time. A facilitator runs the session with you, and we give you training and support before and after.

Close experience

Share what you’ve seen

You’ve worked or lived closely alongside refugees: in a charity or community group, as a caseworker, aid worker, host, teacher, interpreter or chaplain. Stories about other people are told anonymously or with their permission.

Presenter

Deliver a session

You don’t need a personal connection. You deliver one of our planned sessions using our slides, films and notes. Teaching, youth work or public speaking experience helps. We arrange a DBS check (free for volunteers) and training.

Committee

Help run Refugee Aware

You help run Refugee Aware and take it towards registering as a charity. We need two people, unrelated to each other or to our founder. Experience in finance, education, safeguarding or the refugee sector is welcome.

We pay every volunteer’s travel and food costs. If you’re seeking asylum, you can still get involved: we’ll talk you through how volunteering works for you before you start. We never ask about anyone’s immigration case.

I’m interested in (choose at least one)

Please don’t include details of your immigration case or your journey here. We’ll talk properly first.

Run a refugee community group or charity? We’d like to work with you on speakers. Get in touch →

Our story

Refugee Aware began in 2007 as an education project: free workshops helping students, schools and churches look past headlines and understand what it means to be forced from home.

Almost all of it was done by volunteers and without funding. Our school sessions bring that work back, with the people who know this story best at the centre.

“Beyond the statistics, reports and policies are real people with beating hearts like ours.”
Ernest Antwi, founder
  1. 2007

    Ernest Antwi founds Refugee Aware after studying for an MSc in Refugee Studies at London South Bank University.

  2. 2008–09

    Learning the work: six months as an Education Worker Intern at IntoUniversity (2008), then training as a School Speaker with the British Red Cross (2009).

  3. 2010–12

    Works voluntarily as London coordinator with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), supporting a bid to build a Europe-wide network of refugee community organisations.

  4. 2010–17

    Free workshops and talks on refugees and internally displaced people at London South Bank University, Winstanley College, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy, IntoUniversity, Living Springs International Church and St Luke’s C of E Primary School, West Norwood. The work uses testimony, drama, film and open discussion.

  5. 2012

    Ernest receives a Vodafone World of Difference Award for his work through Refugee Aware.

  6. 2013

    Volunteers sort and donate fifteen bags of clothing to the British Red Cross shop in Forest Hill.

  7. 2016

    Volunteers in Uganda start English classes and a refugee football club in Nakivale refugee settlement, coordinated by Aristarque Ashige.

  8. 2026

    Refugee Aware reorganises around free sessions for schools, starting in Havering.

Support the work

Our school sessions are free. Donations pay for speakers’ travel and food, printing, DBS administration and insurance.

Please note: Refugee Aware is not currently a registered charity, so we can’t claim Gift Aid and your donation isn’t tax-deductible. We’re working towards registration and will say so here when it happens.

Contact

Email hello@refugeeaware.org.uk or use the form.

Privacy notice

We only collect what you type into our forms. For schools, that’s your contact details and what you’d like from a session. For volunteers, it’s your contact details and the roles you’re interested in. We use it to arrange sessions and volunteering, and nothing else. We don’t sell or share it, and we never ask about anyone’s immigration case.

Your details are stored securely with our database provider, Supabase, on servers in the EU. Only Refugee Aware’s organisers can see them. We delete what we no longer need, and you can ask us to see, correct or delete what we hold at any time by emailing hello@refugeeaware.org.uk.

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