CONVERSATIONS. CREATIVITY. COMMUNITY. CARE

Refugee Week is a UK-wide festival celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. Founded in 1998 and held every year around World, Refugee Week is also a growing global movement.

Refugee Week enables people from different backgrounds to connect beyond labels, as well as encouraging understanding of why people are displaced, and the challenges they face when seeking safety. Refugee Week is a platform for people who have sought safety in the UK to share their experiences, perspectives and creative work on their own terms.

Refugee Week’s vision is for refugees and asylum seekers to be able to live safely within inclusive and resilient communities, where they can continue to make a valuable contribution.

This Refugee Week (20 – 26th June), we’re inviting you to explore the theme of ‘Healing’. Through creativity and conversations, Refugee Week 2022 will be a celebration of community, mutual care, and the human ability to start again.

Healing means recovering from a painful experience or situation, so that we can continue to live. No-one understands this better than those who have lost their homes and had to build new lives from scratch. We have much to learn from refugees about holding onto hope when going on seems impossible – as well as about how art, creativity and community can help us to heal. Those going through the asylum system also know that healing is an ongoing process, made harder by poverty, housing difficulties and the threat of being detained or deported. Asking for change, so that refugees can truly feel safe, is an act of care.

Whether it’s about looking after ourselves and each other at difficult times, overcoming political divisions or coming together to fight for the survival of our shared planet, healing matters to all of us. Whoever and wherever you are, we hope you’ll join us for Refugee Week 2022 to imagine a world where healing replaces harm, and care becomes our shared currency.

#HealingTogether
#RefugeeWeek2022
#SimpleActs

Image Credit: Royal Museums Greenwich