St Albans for Refugees (StAR) have reached their tenth year of helping those in need around the world.
The St Albans group implement practical ideas to help refugees around the world, whether that be collecting warm clothes for those in the Calais Jungle or sending a disused ambulance to the frontline in Ukraine.
Liz Needham, one of the founders, said that they are not necessarily “celebrating” their decade in action, but are marking the hard work and dedication that has been tirelessly carried out by their volunteers.
Speaking to STALBANSnews, Liz said: “Obviously we would prefer to be out of business, but we are led by world events.”
Throughout the last 10 years, StAR have helped refugees in Greece, South Sudan, Cape Verde, France, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Lebanon, and have also helped the Grenfell victims.
Liz said that one of their proudest achievements was donating a truckload of food to the Calais Jungle, which they were told was enough to feed around 10,000 people in the camp for 10 weeks.
Liz’s personal proudest moment has been helping a young Syrian girl get into a local school – the girl has now graduated university with an engineering degree.
At the time of writing, former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime has just fallen, something Liz said is “obviously a concern”.
With millions of people being displaced year on year due to conflict, famine and authoritarian regimes, and with little sign of de-escalation and resolution, StAR’s work is more important than ever.
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