Holistic support for refugees and migrants - Praxis

Praxis is a centre in Bethnal Green providing support to refugees and vulnerable migrants.

John Mugenzi, who has started a social enterprise at Praxis, says, “After arriving in the UK as a refugee my life was a mess – confused, traumatised, no friends or relatives. From the moral support I received at Praxis, I started to think about my dreams and to realise them step by step.”

Refugees 

Refugees, migrants and asylum seekers are amongst the most socially excluded individuals in the UK. Many have come to this country as a direct result of the impacts of climate change in their own countries. They can face cumbersome, incomprehensible and obstructive bureaucratic procedures, in a language of which they may have limited understanding.  Deportation to a very uncertain future is an ever-present danger. Hostility and prejudice are rife. The barriers to integration are enormous. They need support, advice, guidance, interpreters, training, and opportunity.

Praxis work 

Praxis, in Bethnal Green, is a centre which provides precisely this service.  There’s an advice service, a clothes store, healthcare, vocational training, mentoring, human rights work, and prison support (liaising between migrants held in UK prisons, their families and the prison authorities). There’s also a thriving social and recreational aspect, including a community café, Latin American and Central African dance groups, and a Praxis football team.

The advisory, supportive side of Praxis’ work often centres around desperate, last-ditch human struggles: fighting to find healthcare for a Chinese migrant, eight months pregnant and with no access to accommodation, healthcare or finance; dealing with a frightened, destitute, unsupported mother of two whose partner has been deported to Nigeria after 27 years of living in Europe.

Advocacy, training and support 

In many instances, the centre’s advocacy, training and support is highly successful in enabling refugees to settle and develop a new life. Elhassan Ahmed is a doctor who escaped from his native Sudan after repeated detention and beatings prompted by his support for Beja minority rights. With the help of Praxis he took up a part-time job as a hotel receptionist and is now studying with a view to practising as a doctor in the UK.

Praxis, like many other similar organisations, is in the business of nurturing opportunities for some of the most vulnerable groups in our society.  By nurturing such opportunities, it enables individuals to play an active, positive role in society.  And people who play an active, positive role in society, are people who can be depended upon to help to effect the environmental change essential to securing our future.