Home Office Funding to support Refugee Women during Covid-19

The British Red Cross have been awarded the ‘Support for Refugee Women during COVID-19’ grant funding [c£585,000] by the Home Office. They will deliver their ‘Digital Empowerment and Connect’ project which will help deliver support to refugee women, across the UK, to meet needs associated with the COVID-19 restrictions and the COVID-19 recovery. The funding is intended to help spearhead digital empowerment through provision of devices, data, guidance and technical support directly to women across the UK; deliver tailored resilience building and training through online group work sessions to a range of Red Cross and allied refugee women’s groups; and create legacy course materials and integration film for online access to thousands of refugee women across the UK, wider cohorts and stakeholders. This in turn should help reduce isolation amongst refugee women and lead to improvements in wellbeing, as well as supporting the British Red Cross’ work against gender-based violence through the dissemination of information. Micro Rainbow have been awarded funding [c£61,000] to support lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and queer refugee women across the UK. Stakeholders report that this group of refugee women is often not supported by either mainstream refugee organisations or LGBTI ones. This project will focus on tackling digital poverty through the provision of devices, alongside activities to improve digital skills, employability, and job interview and life skills.