Refugee Support Europe was founded in April 2016, as tens of thousands of people fled Syria’s civil war. In the decade that’s followed, we’ve supported over 200,000 people seeking sanctuary and developed a pioneering model that bridges the crucial gap between arrival and settlement, offering both material and wellbeing support when many people are at their most vulnerable and alone.
Although a lot has changed in the past 10 years, sadly little has improved and the challenges have only increased. Yet, in our Dignity Centres, small acts of kindness and solidarity combine to create real hope. Here, members of our community reflect on memories from their time with us and what our collective work means to them.
I’ll always remember the look on the faces of the bewildered families as they stepped off the coaches at the Alexandreia camp in Greece, exhausted, uncertain. When John Sloan called to ask if I wanted to help there, I leapt in feeling both relief and trepidation. He was a pioneering spirit who could confidently walk into the heart of a crisis and see the people. But he was not a man for details. We had very little experience, just a simple, shared conviction: these people deserved better and that how we gave was more important than what we gave.
My proudest achievement remains the magic of the Refugee Support family and the standard of dignity we set together.
I have never felt more out of my depth than in those early days, but that partnership gave birth to something magical. Volunteers arrived from all over the world, attracted by our singular mission to offer dignity in the middle of chaos. They solved the problems and they were loved. I am relieved I had the chance to help tens of thousands of people whose lives were at rock bottom – but my proudest achievement remains the magic of that Refugee Support family and the standard of dignity we set together. – Paul Hutchings, founder and former CEO
I’ve been a volunteer with RSE since its inception in 2016. We saw that the world was changing fast and a new approach was needed. Our founders created an organisation that could move quickly and adapt to changing circumstances. It attracted volunteers and expertise from around the world. In that first refugee camp, we went from handing out bottled water to setting up a school, a playground, and a pioneering aid distribution system. We even launched a communal kitchen on Christmas Day and cooked for 800 people!
Nowhere else will you find the same kindness, professionalism and passion for change.
As much as RSE has grown, we never lost sight of our objective to provide dignified support. I’ve worked with so many wonderful people, both volunteers and refugees. I’ve even seen those same refugees become volunteers themselves. So many of us are still here 10 years later. That’s because nowhere else will you find the same kindness, professionalism and passion for change. I’m proud to be part of the team. – Tony Conn, volunteer
I first went out to Alexandreia in October 2016. Although they had only been running for a few months, the work that Paul and John had done in that short space of time was amazing. The overwhelming feeling among the group was of kindness and respect. A highlight of my first trip was working with a RSE legend Sue. There was a long-awaited delivery of abayas and we helped the women in camp pick the styles and sizes that they wanted.
This organisation reminds you that there are so many good people on the world.
When I got back home, I asked Paul what I could do to continue helping. He suggested I could start interviewing the new incoming volunteers which I did and loved for several years. I loved meeting people from all over the world who wanted to give their time to come and help. This organisation reminds you that there are so many good people on the world. There are far too many suffering but everywhere you look there is someone good helping. – Ellie Kostick, volunteer
I first met Paul and John 9 years ago when I decided to spend my 60th birthday month at the Alexandria refugee camp in northern Greece where they had been asked to help the authorities. I was so impressed by the dignity and kindness these two founders of RSE showed. Apart from the boutique where everyone had to have a fair chance of finding exactly what they wanted to wear and the market where the shelves were always full, there was a kitchen. The kitchen was a really happy place where volunteers and refugees worked, sang and danced together preparing amazing meals for everyone living at the camp. I was extremely sad to leave and along with many of my fellow volunteers at that time, I am still involved with the charity. – Bea Shrewsbury, trustee
I first heard about Refugee Support from my sister Leslie, who had volunteered three times at Refugee Support sites in Greece prior to the pandemic. I have volunteered four times so far, twice in Moldova and twice in Cyprus. I find the volunteer experience to be physically and mentally exhausting but also emotionally gratifying. What makes the experience so special? First and foremost, the members. In Moldova, they were all Ukrainians (mostly women and children and the elderly) seeking refuge from the Russian invasion. We were there shortly after the start of the war, and everyone was both shocked and hopeful – shocked that the war had started at all and hopeful that it would end quickly. There were lots of tears and hugs and everyone was so grateful to Refugee Support and all the volunteers who had come to help. Maybe it was because it was my first time volunteering, but I can still remember many of the members we served and wonder where they are today. In Cyprus, the members are from many countries and are mostly young men. Their stories are different, but they have all made their way to Cyprus to seek a better life. Afghan men who left Afghanistan so their wives could have a normal life and their daughters could get an education and chase their dreams. People from Palestine and Sudan, fleeing horrific wars and violence. Somalis fleeing civil war and famine. Many are still teenagers and it breaks my heart to see them on their own, trying to make their way in a strange country. Despite the fact that many countries, my own included, are slamming the door in their faces, they continue to live with hope and impressive resilience that there is a better place for them.
In a world that is increasingly chaotic and cruel, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless and think that you cannot make a difference. Refugee Support provides you the opportunity to feel like you are doing something to help someone.
The other reason the volunteer experience is so special is because of the Coordinators and the other volunteers. It is an amazing experience to meet, live and work with people from other countries in such an intense shared experience. Not surprisingly, the work attracts kind and interesting people and there is always a lot of laughter, despite the serious nature of the task. The coordinators are a special group of people. They have to coach and coax a team of well-meaning volunteers, who change every two weeks, into an effective work crew. It is an almost impossible task but somehow, with patience and efficiency, they make it work. All of the Coordinators I have met have been fantastic, but to me, Paula is the heart and soul of Refugee Support. She has been a part of all of my volunteer experiences and her dedication to the wellbeing of both the members and the volunteers is inspiring. I feel lucky to know her. I also feel lucky to have shared this experience with my sister Leslie twice, both times in Moldova, and with a friend, Joe, and most recently with my daughter, Zoe, in Cyprus. In a world that is increasingly chaotic and cruel, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless and think that you cannot make a difference. Refugee Support provides you the opportunity to feel like you are doing something to help someone, even if it’s just a drop of positivity in an ocean of sadness. – Eileen Lunga, volunteer
For 10 years, Refugee Support has shown that aid is most meaningful when it is given with dignity. That belief is both a practice and a promise. From the very beginning, the asylum seeker has been seen as a person to be respected and supported, not as a problem to be solved. I was drawn to that spirit seven years ago, and it has kept me returning ever since. I remember Paul Hutchings once describing us as “selfish altruists,” and at the time I didn’t fully understand it. But over the years, I have come to realise that in giving our time and care, in return we receive the gifts of perspective, connection and a renewed sense of what truly matters.
Offering food and essential support is an act of solidarity. Dignity, once protected, can restore hope.
For me, this work also carries a deeply personal resonance. It brings me back to an Ireland of not so long ago, when many families struggled and the simple act of putting food on the table was not always guaranteed. That memory lives with me, and I feel it strongly each time I walk into the Dignity Centre in Cyprus. Offering food and essential support is an act of solidarity, as well as service, across time and place. It is a reminder that hardship does not define a person, and that dignity, once protected, can restore hope. To be part of that, even in a small way, has been one of the most meaningful privileges of my life. – Gerry Clancy, Ambassador
Refugee Support left a lasting imprint on how I understand care and what it means to truly stand beside another person. Paula, in particular, embodied a deep commitment to meeting people as whole human beings, with dignity fully intact regardless of circumstance. That is what stayed with me most: not only what Refugee Support did, but the way it did it. There was an atmosphere of warmth and respect that made something essential visible… the full personhood of those at the centre of displacement, so often obscured elsewhere.
That is what stayed with me most: not only what Refugee Support did, but the way it did it.
My time volunteering has shaped many conversations I have had since, and it continues to inform how I think about service and responsibility. And what I remember most vividly is the character of the community itself: people showing up, offering care, and reminding those around them what it means to take another person seriously. To have been even a small part of Refugee Support is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life. – Shannon Robertson, volunteer
I first volunteered with RSE in 2017, and I clearly remember the despair I felt that our governments in the UK and Europe (with the exception of Germany, at the time) were failing us in their response to the so-called ‘refugee crisis,’ which was being framed as a crisis for recipient countries rather than for the people it was actually affecting. The hostility, fear and hate did not represent me, and I needed a way to stand up and say, “Not in my name.” I ended up in LM Village, a remote camp set on an abandoned holiday resort in mainland Greece, where volunteers helped run a small Dignity Market of food and hygiene items. Initially, I felt saddened by the experience, because I had simultaneously glimpsed the horror and the scale of the situation. How could I ever do enough to make a difference?
To be doing something, however hard, is always easier than doing nothing.
A few months later, Paul called and asked me to be a temporary Coordinator at the project in Katsikas camp in northern Greece. I spent a month there in October 2018, during which time the camp doubled in size, from 500 to 1000 people. It was a deeply challenging and rewarding experience, and it’s where I started learning that I wasn’t there to ‘solve’ anything, to ‘save’ anyone. The meaning was simply to be there, to stand alongside people – those placed in the camp, dehumanised by an unjust system; volunteers from all over the world, all walks of life, working together – and say: I see you. It’s also where I met Paula, who was volunteering for the first time. Little did either of us know then that we’d go on to work together as part of RSE’s core team – and that Paula would become instrumental in changing the lives of so many members and volunteers. As the world continues to take a darker turn, I remain uplifted by this work. To be doing something, however hard, is always easier than doing nothing. – Natalie Holmes, team member
The impact Refugee Support has had on my life, let alone the lives of those it serves, can’t be understated. Having first entered the indomitable world of RSE that John and Paul created back in 2016, I’ve found myself returning on and off ever since. Being part of an organisation that offers something as fundamental as the restoration of dignity to people who have had it stripped away, there’s really only one word for it: gravitas. It’s the opportunity to put dignity back on the menu where it had long since been removed. To find community among volunteers from diverse and vastly different walks of life. To experience a rare kind of camaraderie that forms between strangers connected by shared values and a shared purpose. It’s also the chance to play a small but meaningful role in someone’s journey, to share in traditions and customs that persist despite displacement, and to witness profound resilience up close.
It’s been 10 years of doing the subtle, necessary work of restoring dignity – and reminding us, time and again, of what really matters.
In a world increasingly defined by what we have, rather than who we are, and where sanity and safety can feel scarce, the act of moving beyond all that and engaging in genuine human connection is radical. To share space and stories with people who have endured so much, yet continue to meet the world with kindness and openness, is a responsibility and a privilege. Being part of it all has brought me together with some extraordinary people. Among the volunteers: a widowed pastor’s wife, a champion of the Berlin music scene, an ex-Pentagon strategist, a formidable man from Limerick who’s a reminder of the impact one individual can have, a cat-obsessed Guatemalan, and university students from Tokyo. I’ve been equally humbled by those we support – builders from Guinea-Bissau, veterinarians from Iran, hairdressers from Kurdistan, engineers from Iraq, security guards from Somalia, software developers from Bangladesh, pilots from DRC, chefs from Syria, accountants from Palestine. Refugee Support re-centres our shared humanity.
So it’s been 10 years of doing the subtle, necessary work of restoring dignity – and reminding us, time and again, of what really matters. And being part of that, even in a small way, has a way of staying with you. It’s why, after all these years, I’ve never quite left. – Maggie Duff, team member
