Get informed
This page has some useful information and tools to help you get informed on the issues or take action.
Look for the latest petitions or write to your MP
Whilst we are a local organisation, there are various national campaigns that affect forcibly displaced people coming to Elmbridge. You can always find useful petitions to sign at Refugee Action or Citizens UK Campaigns or simply write to your local MP.
Films and documentaries
There are lots of great films available to help you become better informed. Here’s a few to get you started.
Human Flow - 2017
Why do we have so much migration coming our way? If you want a big picture perspective, this is the one. Filmed across 23 countries by international artist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei, this film studies the global issue of migration with a completely apolitical approach. Rather, it aims to show the human side of the phenomenon, putting a face to the huge numbers of people following migration routes every year.
For Sama - 2019, BAFTA winner, Oscar-nominated for best documentary
An intimate and visceral documentary, this multi-award-winning film is a journey though motherhood during the bombings of the Syrian civil war. Waad al-Kateab's first feature documentary is a story of love, resilience and hope, framed by suffering and harsh dilemmas.
Another News Story - 2019
Directed by Verity Wislowki, shot across nine countries from Greece to Germany, the film goes behind the scenes of the news crews reporting the refugee story at the height of the European crisis. It takes the viewer to the other side of the camera and inspires us to re-evaluate our relationship with the global media and how we consume news.
Available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Gray Bees by Andrey Kurkov, a famous Ukrainian novelist who dramatises the conflict raging in his country with his trademark wry humour, through the adventures of a beekeeper.
Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner). Based on a Syrian father’s reflections, while watching his sleeping son, as they await the perilous journey across the Mediterranean. Author proceeds are donated to UNHCR.
Shatila Stories published by Peirene who commissioned nine refugees to tell their ‘Shatila Stories’. The result is a piece of collaborative fiction unlike any other. Read if you want to understand the chaos of the Middle East, or just to enjoy a beautiful love story.
No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish journalist who was illegally detained on Manus Island and laboriously typed his story on a mobile phone. Translated from Farsi.
England - Poems From A School has some incredibly moving short poems about the refugee experience, including the one that went viral on Facebook.
In the Wars by Dr Waheed Arian. Feel inspired by this incredible Afghan doctor's story.
Hope Not Fear by Hassan Akkad, about his harrowing experience leaving Syria and the kindness he experienced in the UK, which helped him get back on his feet and rebuild his life.
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