Muslims and Christians Welcome Refugees

Mosques in North-East London with Churches and Christian groups are working together to sponsor a Syrian refugee family who arrived on the 26th of June, to start their new life in the UK.

The Redbridge Community Sponsorship project – a partnership between South Woodford Mosque, Balfour Road Mosque, Ilford Methodist Church, Ilford Salvation Army, St. Thomas of Canterbury RC Church and Wanstead Quakers – was initially formed in 2017.

The group of active residents and faith communities, supported by Redbridge Council and Citizens UK’s Sponsor Refugees project, successfully developed a detailed plan on how they will support the family and fundraised £9,000 to help cover the family’s expenses for an initial 18-month period as part of the Community Sponsorship scheme.

The Community Sponsorship scheme was launched by the government in 2016 based on the successful Canadian model and allows groups of UK residents the opportunity to take the lead in welcoming a Syrian family. The families are one of 20,000 vulnerable persons (primarily, but not exclusively, Syrian) to be welcomed in the UK by 2020, who are currently displaced due to conflict in refugee camps in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt region, and who have been assessed by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) as most vulnerable, including survivors of violence and torture, people needing urgent medical treatment and women and children who are at risk.

For more information about Community Sponsorship and the Welcoming Refugees project by the MCB and Mercy Mission UK, visit www.mcb.org.uk/welcoming-refugees