We’re celebrating refugees, why don’t you?

This year Freedom from Torture, formerly the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, is an official partner of Refugee Week which takes place from 20 – 26 June, culminating in the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June. It is also the 60th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, an international agreement which recognises the rights of refugees around the world and defines what these rights are.

Refugee Week is all about celebrating the positive contributions that refugees have made to the UK over the last 60 years. And as the only organisation in the UK dedicated to working solely with torture survivors, the vast majority of whom are asylum seekers and refugees, there really is a lot to celebrate!

Want to find out more about refugees in the UK? Read about their history; their economic, social and cultural contribution; and how many of the world’s refugees the UK hosts in 'A Credit to the Nation'.

“We talk about asylum or refugee as if it is a bad word, it is not. It is about protection – how can that be a bad?”, a survivor of torture from Cameroon

Are you joining the celebrations? It’s easy, just tag along to one of ours!

We are having a Secret Garden Party on Saturday 18 June. Behind a ten foot wall on a busy London road there’s a special garden. This is where you’ll find our Natural Growth Project, a safe place where people who have survived torture can experience healing through psychotherapy in the natural environment. Or join one of many other Freedom from Torture events hosted by our local groups taking place across the country.

Join our Survivors Speak OUT Network to march alongside other refugees at the Refugee Week Umbrella Parade on Sunday 19 June. It starts in Victoria and ends up at Celebrating Sanctuary festivities on the Southbank in London where members of our therapeutic writing group, Write to Life, will be there reading out some of their work. 

You can also show your solidarity by remembering survivors of torture in your thoughts at your own special gathering, school assembly or faith group on or around the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (like the service at Westminster Cathedral on 27 June – come along). Download our Resource Pack for ideas and readings. Of course if you have a bit more time, you can always ‘give us a hand’ – it is easy, write a message to survivors on your hand and, just like many survivors bravely speaking out who choose to hide their identity in fear of persecution or stigma , it does not reveal who you are.

For Refugee Week in Scotland, Freedom from Torture is hosting an exhibition featuring photographs of and by survivors of torture living in Glasgow called Human Rights and Wrongs at the Platform Arts Centre. The exhibition has been developed by photographer Angela Catlin and journalist Billy Briggs working with survivors from Freedom from Torture.