The South London charity punching above its weight to help out both locally and internationally

By Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporter

Five years on from the harrowing images of refugees risking their lives for a better life on the other side of the Mediterranean, dominating headlines and political debate across the word, shockingly little has changed.

Greece remains a bottleneck for thousands of asylum seekers who continue to flee conflict, bombs, violence and persecution from across the Middle East and parts of Africa.

The crisis, rarely illuminated with good news, has had a new challenge since the turn of 2020 – the coronavirus pandemic, which, alongside turning countries across the world upside down, has torn through the refugee camps housing thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers.

For the charities doing their best to help those with so little, the pandemic has placed unprecedented pressures on their tiny budgets and volunteer-driven workforces.

Greenwich Refugee Aid and Community Enterprise – GRACE – is one of those local charities which, in its own words, “punches above its weight” to help both in London and internationally.

Formed in 2015 at the height of the European refugee crisis by husband and wife duo Claire and Greek-born Andreas Papazidis, the charity has for the past several years sent aid packages to camps in the country consisting of clothes, shoes and other desperately needed supplies.

Running from its small base in Lee Green, the charity accepts donations of clothes at its shop front, sending on items to Greece while also selling and fundraising locally.

“We’re doing things in South London, but we’re also trying to punch above our weight internationally,” Robert Keeling, a trustee at the charity for two years, says of the charity’s work.

The coronavirus pandemic, however, saw its “lifeline of income cut overnight” according to Andreas, with “very little left in the bank”.

“It’s a big issue for a charity of this size, we just can’t cope if the shop is closed,” he explained.

Unable to continue its deliveries of aid to people in Greece and elsewhere due to the lockdown, the charity set its sights on local efforts.

“The need for clothing fell as people were going out less, but food was a big thing,” Andreas said.

They helped partner-charity Refugee Solidarity South East move into the shop next door, and turned to raising funds to deliver toiletries and other items for London charities Her Centre, Hestia Charity, and Lewisham Foodbank.

“After not being able to send anything internationally and not being able to open the shop, to help locally was a no-brainer,” Andreas added.

Banding with other charities became a necessity as all were so stretched by the pandemic, Robert explained.

“It’s brought local charities together because the funding system changed so dramatically,” he said.

“There has been a genuine groundswell of not just refugee, but Covid-19 charities putting their shoulders to the wheel.”

It has also led to the birth of their next initiative – a free community shop where people seeking asylum, survivors of domestic violence, and others in extreme financial difficulty will be able to shop for essentials like clothing, toys for children, crockery and other pieces which make a house a home.

The free shop will not be separate from its current Lee Green charity shop – those referred there will pay for their items with a pre-agreed credit, allowing them to choose what they like from all donated items that are on the shop floor like anyone paying with cash.

GRACE’S Jennifer Foster, a long-time refugee advocate and Amnesty International researcher, said the move was modelled off current methods in Greek refugee camps and was aimed at giving those in need a more “dignified” experience.

“To people who have often lost everything, a little bit of dignity goes a long way,” Jennifer said.

“People need dignity, many of them have come from refugee camps where they had nothing, so it’s about being able to give them some dignity by being able to buy something here. Dignity is free,” Andreas added.

While it will introduce the new feature in October, he said the charity would also continue its donations to Greece when possible, noting that it is “a very strange situation when there was a refugee crisis in 2015, and that crisis is still going now in 2020.

“That’s not stopping, the need is even greater, the flow of refugees is still happening,” he said.

While finding a silver-lining regarding such dire circumstances is difficult, Robert optimistically said he hoped the pandemic would help “bring out a more sympathetic side of the UK”.

“It’s been a huge social disruption for everyone. Hopefully it’ll make people think in a different context of what people coming from overseas have gone through,” he said.

Pictured top: GRACE’s Andreas Papazidis, Jennifer Foster and Robert Keeling at their Lee base (Picture: Lachlan Leeming)