Tales from Orkney

Supporter Annie Fanning, who has donated phone credit since the early days of PC4R, has recently published the second volume of her book, #OrkneyTales, with proceeds helping to fund our vital work. Here, you can find out more about Annie’s writing inspiration, read an exclusive extract from her latest volume, and learn how she uses her creativity to help play the Facebook algorithms each Friday during our fundraising ‘conga’… 

Hello all! I’m Annie and I’ve been a member of PC4R since Jape first asked his friends to top up the phones of some refugees he met in Calais, back in 2015. In fine PC4R style, one of his friends shared the request with a group that contained a friend of a friend of a friend of my sister, who tagged me. The resonance was something else. I’ve never been a refugee or anything close, but we had to leave my childhood country (Tanzania) when I was 12 and since then I’ve been fairly rootless – boarding schools, different towns and circumstances, everywhere feeling temporary. It’s only in the last six years have I found home, here in Orkney.

In the early days, we topped up one to one, which means that Jape could message Anwar or Maya and tell them, “Your phone has just been topped up by Annie.” We would get emergency requests that we could deal with immediately by going online, buying a top-up voucher and emailing the code to Jape. It was this direct connection with someone I could help that I found so fulfilling… and still do. To know that my £10 will make someone’s phone ping with the top-up notification they have so anxiously been hoping for is a source of deep reassurance and satisfaction.

As you may well know, PC4R is a Facebook group that plays the Facebook algorithms to spread the reach of the Appeal as widely as possible. To do this, we have to concentrate all our energies into one appeal post a week – the Friday Conga – and generate as many comments, threads, likes and engagement as we can. 

My comments every Friday are usually something to do with where I live, here in Orkney. Over the years, they have morphed into a Saturday morning two-minute tale for people to read while slurping the first coffee of the day, and to excite more comments to keep the Conga alive well into the weekend. Then, I was asked to apply the hashtag  #orkneytales, so that people could find them more easily among the Saturday morning revels. Next, it was suggested I gather them up into a little book that could be sold to raise funds for the charity. So I did.

The first book, #OrkneyTales, was published in February 2022. It has sold 108 copies to date, raising £710. Volume 2 came out at the beginning of December 2022. It has sold 43 copies to date and (with the help of a few extra Volume 1 sales) has already raised £240.

If you would like to buy either volume, and help to support Phone Credit For Refugees in the process, you will find the books here at Tasywisp Publishing on Facebook. Each book costs £9.99 to include UK 2nd class postage and packing, and £6 of this goes directly to PC4R’s vital work. 

Want a sneak peek to see what to expect? Then read on, for an extract from #OrkneyTales Volume 2…

Gale Force Laundry

When a dry day with wind force 6 or 7 is forecast, many Orcadians pop a load of laundry into the machine overnight to be ready for pegging out the next day. With a well-anchored line and proprietary storm pegs, wind speeds of up to 65km per hour get your washing dry in no time at all.

The day a couple of years ago dawned dry and sunny, with a gentle force 3 breeze, forecast to freshen to 5 or 6 by evening. “Perfect,” thought James, as he hung three lines of washing across his garden – almost all his bedding and pretty much all of his underwear. James did not belong to the ‘little and often’ school of laundering. In fact, the plan was to take the dry sheets off the line when he got home from work and put them straight back on the bed.

By midday, the sky had blackened and the wind had picked up. James, at his desk in town, sighed with the mild resignation of one well used to the capriciousness of Orkney weather. The thought of having to bring still-damp clothes back into the house and trying to dry his duvet cover on the radiator was not appealing, but it had happened before, many times.

At just gone two, his phone rang. It was Isla, his lovely elderly neighbour on the left. 

“Oh Chaimesie,” she wailed. “Yur claits are coming untied from yur line.” 

Isla was not the kind to panic. If she thought some of James’s washing was about to blow away across the outrun and into the Flow, she was probably right. Making his excuses to his colleagues, James jumped into his car and started for home. At the Oystercatcher’s roundabout, his phone rang again. It was Isla. 

“They’ve arl gone, Chaimsie,” she warned. “There’s nothing left. But mebbee some got caught up on the hedge round the side!”

James put his foot hard down on the accelerator and sped for home. If there was any chance that he might be able to retrieve something, anything, before it was blown off the hedge or ripped to shreds, he had to take it. Just past the Scapa Distillery, the police clocked him at 85mph.

“Well,” said the Sherriff, when it was James’s day in court. “A predicament many of us will sympathise with. Tell me, did you manage to save anything?” 

James shuffled in embarrassment.

“Er, yes Sir, all of it.”

“All of it?”

“Yes Sir. While my neighbour on the left wasn’t at her window, my neighbour on the right took the washing in for me.”

The Sherriff beamed with delight. 

“What a blessing it is to have good neighbours. I am so pleased that this tale has a happy ending. Three penalty points and £100 fine. See the clerk on your way out. Next!”

Like what you’ve read? You can purchase Volumes 1 and 2 of #OrkneyTales by Annie Fanning here! £6 from each sale will go directly towards purchasing phone credit for refugees who are currently homeless, making dangerous journeys or living in harsh camp conditions.

5 minutes with... Emma Manton!

Actress and run leader Emma Manton is the founder of Running With Refugees, a charity whose virtual and live running events have raised thousands for refugees all over the world.

For the fourth year in a row, we’re delighted to say that this years’ virtual marathon event is raising vital funds for PC4R. We caught up with Emma for a quick chat about why she chooses to support us, and how you can get involved.

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PC4R: Why is the refugee crisis so close to your heart?

Emma: I first became aware of the crisis when the photograph of Alan Kurdi on the beach made it into the press, back in 2015. It felt like the whole world, for a moment, really cared about refugees. He was the same age as my son at the time – that image hit me in a way that all the other news stories hadn’t. And I know I wasn’t the only one who felt that way – I think it was the moment for a lot of people.

The world has changed so much since 2015, and as the public rhetoric has changed over the years, it’s felt even more important to keep talking about this. I’ve also visited the camps, and once you’ve looked it square in the eye, you can’t look away.

 Sadly, 2022 has brought the refugee crisis back to the forefront of the news. Imagine reading or hearing news stories, unsure as to whether your loved ones are involved and being unable to contact them. PC4R allows people to contact their families. To let them know they're safe. And in their thoughts. What could be more vital?

PC4R: Why did you set up Running With Refugees?

Emma: I set it up originally to fundraise for my London Marathon place through UNHCR, and then quickly realised it was more than just a fundraiser – it was actually a really nice fitness event. Running With Refugees is a really good entry-level running challenge for people. I’ve seen friends sign up and then go on to become runners, entering live events, doing half marathons and marathons, all from having started by supporting a charity. It’s become a way to get people moving, which is lovely and a bit of a bonus side effect, really.

PC4R: Why have you chosen to support Phone Credit For Refugees again this year?

Emma: Because I can’t imagine anything worse than being in a scary, frightening foreign place where you don’t speak the language and not being able to check in on your loved ones, especially if you’ve had to leave them behind somewhere you know is dangerous. I imagine in that situation I would rather be able to check on my family than… eat, almost.

And there’s so much else tied up with our phones: how do you know where you are? How do you find a map? How do you access any services? How do you find people who can help you? How do you contact the Home Office? All those things you need to do – find your paperwork, fill in a form, translate something. We turn to our phones for that. It’s how we live in the world; it’s how we communicate with each other; it’s how we do anything. And not being able to do that seems brutal… really, really brutal. Our phones are not a luxury item. They’re our connection to everything.

PC4R: Why should people sign up to the 2023 event?

Emma: The virtual marathon has always felt like a simple, achievable challenge to get the year off to a good start. You don't need to be running for hours and hours, just a few miles, a few times a week will do it. And it can help form a running habit that will hopefully stick!

PC4R: Do you have to be a super fit runner to take part?

Emma: Absolutely not. There are some people who have run their 26.2 miles within the first week, and some people who are doing a tour of the block on the last day, pushing their buggy or accompanied by a small child on a scooter, to get the final miles in. That’s the joy of it – it’s so inclusive. Logging it on the EtchRock site, you can see all of this – everybody posts runs and photos, and there’s a leaderboard, so you can see how everyone’s getting on and where they are – people all over the world have taken part, including people in India, America, Australia, Canada and all over Europe.

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You can sign up here to take part in Running with Refugees in January 2023 – we can’t wait to welcome you as part of our team! And to double your impact, you can set up a Just Giving page here to start raising funds in support of your run - every penny will go towards helping refugees in need.

See you on the (virtual) start line!

Things left behind

As a community, PC4R is pretty unique. Comprising both refugees and supporters, everyone’s situation and experience is unique, but there are a few common aims we all share – to help keep people connected, and to learn more about each others’ lives to increase compassion and understanding. Here, PC4R supporter Xanthe finds that reflecting on her own lifestyle choices helps her to empathise more deeply with the difficult choices refugees must contend with…

I first started living a more alternative lifestyle in the winter of 2015, moving to a community called Yorkley Court Community Farm. There, I lived in a geodesic dome, insulated with blankets and old duvets, with tarps to keep the rain out and a floor made of pallets. It was heated by a little wood stove. The small space was warmed through within ten minutes of the stove being lit, but it was cold once the fire burned down to embers.

After Yorkley Court was evicted, about half of us who had been living there moved to the local traveller site. The site was on a long-deserted tip, with a stretch of hardstanding at the front and a slightly boggy bit of wilderness at the back. After a summer of experimenting with living in a tent and a hammock, I was offered a caravan. It was an old Tabbert (a German made caravan), with lots of windows, a good-sized wood burner, and interior walls painted red, purple and green. It had previously been a family home, with the parents sleeping in the double bed at one end and the kids at the other. Pink butterfly stickers adorned the windows at the children’s end.

A comfortable home

My Tabbert was a big step up from the tent/hammock experiment. I was still surrounded by lush greenery and wildlife, and would wake up to the dawn chorus in the summer, but I never woke up shivering with cold. There was storage for my clothes and belongings, and life felt more settled. Poppy the cat, who had followed us from Yorkley Court, would come and sleep on my bed or on the seat next to the wood burner. It was a comfortable home.

Those days were glorious. We cooked on an open fire beneath a tarpaulin shelter. We ate together, played music and went for long walks in the forest that surrounded us. I had no work, no money, no real plan of what I was doing in life beyond day-to-day living, but I was happy. I was warm enough, well fed and I was in love. Poppy the cat’s other favoured human had a caravan next to mine, and I wound up staying in there more than in my own home.

Life went on in a similar way for a while. We were evicted from that site and moved to another, bigger site about a mile away. Things became a little less communal, as most of us had gas cookers by that point. We still shared a drink around a fire pit now and again, but less than before. Seasons went by. We all worked more and got things like cars and cleaner clothes. After some years, I got a van and slowly converted it to a live-in. Poppy’s other human moved away and, after some time spent in a long-distance relationship, we split up. It wasn’t long before I rejoined them though – as friends.

Poppy the cat

Some friends set up a new community in Wales. It was a neglected little house, with peeling 50s wallpaper and dusty Christmas decorations still hanging from the ceiling. Two fields sloped gently down towards the house and a stretch of woodland ran from the yard down alongside the bumpy track that went into the town. By the time I moved in, the house had all the mod cons – functional electrics, hot water on tap (if the Rayburn had been lit recently enough) and a gas-fired outdoor shower. With only one bedroom, most of us stayed living in our vans or caravans. We weren’t so interested in living in a house anyway. Bricks and mortar are useful, and we cooked and had baths and socialised in the house, but who would leave behind the dawn chorus, opening your door to the woods, or the field with a view of the valley, and the privacy of having twenty feet or more between your living space and the next person’s? Who would give up the freedom of being able to change the view from your bedroom window on a whim, of being able to travel elsewhere and take your home with you?

All change

Who, I ask? Who would change all that for bricks and mortar? I write this from my little bedroom in a rented shared house, a four-hour drive away from my friends in Wales. It’s a step down in the world, to go from being a footloose ‘homeowner’, to paying rent each month for a single bedroom in a terraced house in the cold North of England. I can practically hear my neighbours fart. My bedroom window looks out onto neat suburban back gardens. I changed the dawn chorus for the rumble and roar of motorway traffic. There are positives. My clothes have lost that musty smell of clothes stored in damp drawers. I have a washing machine, radiators and unlimited hot water for washing. Although my bedroom is small, it’s bigger than my van was. I miss my wood burner, and I miss being able to make my morning coffee from my bed, and I miss the rolling Ceredigion hills and shining river Teifi. I miss my community, although I do keep in touch, and I am making new friends here.

It's a bit of a culture shock, going from being a van-dwelling part-time carer who lives in a community and spends her time herding chickens, sowing seeds and weeding the garden, to being a full-time student social-worker living in a shared house in a town. I’ve supported PC4R for a while now, and I suppose it’s only through this change in my life that I’ve thought more about refugees and the things they’ve left behind.

Difficult choices

These people have made a difficult choice: they have left their community. They’ve weighed it up and decided that the danger they face by staying outweighs all of the positive factors of their home and community. They know they’re making a dangerous journey. They know the living conditions they will face in the camps will be difficult. They know they might never see their family again. What incredible strength it must take to make the decision to leave your community and seek safety elsewhere. It’s not a decision that anyone makes lightly, and many would not make this decision were they not pushed to it by factors out of their control: war, persecution, famine, floods. I’m proud to be a part of something that helps people to connect with the community that they’ve left behind – with their families, friends and loved ones. It really feels like the least I can do. 

It will only be for six months…

For PC4R supporter Beverley, the refugee crisis in Greece is very close to home. Here, as part of Refugee Week, she reveals how she got involved with fundraising for people living in the camps – and just how important the work of NGOs and grassroots organisations, like PC4R, is. Because, as she says, an individual can make a big difference, and a little goes a long way… 

Eleven years ago, Bob and I bought a tiny two-room stone house on the Greek island of Evia, which runs alongside the Attica coast outside Athens. We can arrive at the house by ferry or drive over the connecting bridge in around two hours.

In 2014, a friend in Athens told us a refuge for unaccompanied Syrian young people was opening in Piraeus – the port of Athens. We made contact with the NGO running it and for two years helped to provide food and clothes for the 74 children, plus around 20 new mothers and their babies. The mainly teenage boys ate a ton of food and had only the clothes they stood up in, so we got busy with fundraising and, back home, started our never-ending collection of clothes and shoes for children and families. We held our first fundraising event, with Bob and his band playing a gig in our village hall. None us us could have dreamed where this would go – we thought after six months we’d call it a day.

Close to home

Then, six-and-a-half years ago, I heard that a camp for Syrian refugees was to open near the capital of Evia. In October, I arranged a strange sort of rendezvous on a roundabout outside the town. There, with an English friend who lives in Evia, I met with a Greek secondary school teacher, a Syrian barber and a young Syrian undergraduate, and we visited the camp at Ritsona for the first time. 

We were made to feel very welcome and heard stories of the horrendous journeys people had made to arrive in Greece, many involving arduous, dangerous and exhausting experiences. By that point, the camp had taken delivery of Isoboxes – like portacabins – to house several hundred people. During our frequent visits with donations (which I collected in the UK), we would go box to box with a notepad making lists of individual requests. There would always be tea and Syrian food and children to play with. 

Eventually, a falafel stand and coffee shop were opened by enterprising families and a tiny sense of home materialised.

Growing demand

Four years ago, I visited the newest and closest camp in Malakasa – a camp for Afghan refugees – as Ritsona was by now less in need of our help. Malakasa has grown and grown, as have all the camps – they are now ten times their original size. My wonderful Austrian friend has volunteered at Malakasa for five years, and she manages the warehouse alone, which involves baby milk, nappy and toiletries distribution, plus myriad other things people request – everything from bedding to dummies, incontinence pads and nit combs. She often runs out of supplies – if I’m there, out goes another appeal to our fabulous friends and we do our best to get what we can. It’s chaotic, but effective!

Sadly, things are changing for refugees in Greece. The government has a mandate to make life more difficult – and therefore less attractive – to new arrivals. NGOs are being told to leave. After more than six years visiting Ritsona, Bob and I were escorted in by security guards in January with clothes donations, and then forced to leave straight away – no falafel, no coffee, no visits to our friends who still live there. I fear Malakasa will soon go that way, too. Monthly grants to refugees have been cut from €150 a month to €75. There are now security guards, three-metre-high concrete walls and razor wire.

Lessons learned

But one huge lesson we’ve learned over the years is that individuals and small groups can make a huge difference. Over the past few years, we’ve taken flyers from PC4R to give to anyone we meet who has no access to phone credit. The refugee community in the main camps have access to the internet, but they often have contact with other people who are homeless in Athens, for whom PC4R could be invaluable.

Small fundraising efforts – €100 for urgent nappies or £1 flip flops from The Pound Shop – also really make a difference for NGOs and grassroots organisations, including PC4R, CRIBS (an Oldham-based charity providing accommodation for mothers and their newborns in Athens) and foodKIND (a group feeding hundreds of people in Malakasa), all of whom we support.

So now, onward into our seventh year we go – armed with more experience than we could ever have thought possible back then, on our six-month time scale.

What would you do?

When PC4R supporter, Gill Durbin, watched on as refugees began fleeing Ukraine, she found herself wondering what she would do faced with the same terrifying situation – and realised it would not be a straightforward decision…

Gill’s herd of 314 dairy cows couldn’t be abandoned

When Russia invaded Ukraine and, once again, we started to hear reports of a mass exodus of refugees, I asked myself, how would I respond? What if my country was invaded and I feared for the safety of my family? Would we leave everything behind and seek refuge in a foreign country? How bad would it need to be to risk our lives on a perilous journey?

While my initial thought was, of course we would leave, it didn’t take me long to realise it would be completely impossible for us – we have 314 dairy cows who need to be milked twice daily: they could hardly be abandoned! Add in another 233 youngstock and beef animals, and the reality for us would be that we would have to stay until it was probably too late. 

Reports from Ukrainian dairy farmers confirm they are having to cope with myriad challenges presented by interrupted energy supply, fuel shortages and variability of milk collection, so I appreciate the decision to stay would also be fraught with difficulties. I have seen harrowing footage of Ukrainian dairy farmers having to milk by hand their remaining cows, while the bloated corpses of those who have not survived (one particular farm counted 30 direct hits) rot around them. 

What strikes me most is the resourcefulness of these farmers and their families. They are distributing their milk in their local village and what isn’t required is being collected by the Red Cross. I find it staggering to see their lives so literally blown apart and yet they are getting on with life because, when you have livestock to see to, there is no other choice. 

At the same time, I find myself struck by the challenge of whether I would stay or go. I asked my children (13 and 11) if they would leave us and flee with their grandparents or if they would choose to stay. The eldest thought they would stay, the youngest thought they would leave. For those who wonder why someone living in the relative safety of the countryside would even consider this, I ask you to consider the Ukrainian Holodomor which, between 1932 and 1933, caused at least 4 million Ukrainians to starve to death (some estimates consider the total to be nearer 10 million). Rural households were targeted and searched for food they might be hiding – farmers were shot if they were found to be keeping hold of the grain they had produced.

 While I remain sure I would have to stay, I do wonder where the younger and older generations in my family would end up, and so the need for that ability to communicate seems so urgent and important. 

I support PC4R because I cannot begin to imagine how worrying it must be when you are separated from your loved ones, knowing they have either begun a journey to an unknown destination or knowing that they have stayed in a dangerous situation. I should imagine there is a profound sense of relief every time a message is received, every time a phone call is answered, every time a social media post is seen. The connection that we take for granted multiple times a day – every day – is something I cherish.

My monthly donation on its own might not go very far, but joined with many others it helps to achieve the wonderful aim of allowing people in challenging circumstances to stay connected. For this, I cannot thank all who donate their time, money or both, enough.

Poet's corner

When Ruth Hall, Subject Leader of Modern Languages at Dene Academy, near Durham, contacted us with a poem for our blog, we weren’t expecting it to be quite so heartbreaking. 

Penned by Islam, a Year 10 pupil who arrived at the school as part of the Syrian Resettlement Scheme, it was originally written in Arabic, before being translated into English. 

We think you’ll agree it’s breathtakingly powerful…

A child suffering harsh deprivation

He complains to God about the pain he faces

His father and mother dead

And all the parents have become without homelands and without countries

Become an orphan lost and homeless

A child without a country or address

He walks on that sidewalk and says,

Oh my country, what happened?

I have not found a home like Damascus, a home that embraces my soul

Today I lost all safety

An orphan child and life continues to give him a lot of suffering and pain

And winter came to the little one harshly, with cold and hunger

Hunger cripples him with all its cruelty, and cold is like aggression

Hiding in a box hoping to give him some tenderness

Death played with his soul lovingly

Come to eternal paradise

Come on, my little one, towards your mother, where you will receive bliss in Heaven

Come to your father, the martyr, for he is near the prophets and the chosen ones

The little boy died of winter and cold

From hunger and harsh deprivation

The little boy died without consolation for a people who were satisfied with humiliation and loss

By Islam, Year 10

Islam’s original poem, written in Arabic

Why do you support PC4R? (Part One)

Photos of hands sent to us by refugees and our supporters

From its humble beginnings back in 2016, Phone Credit For Refugees has grown considerably, with a Facebook following of more than 63,000 members – a number that comprises both refugee requesters and supporters. Many of these supporters come together on Facebook every Friday for the group’s weekly fundraising effort – the Friday Conga. This ‘conga’ sees supporters make a donation, before commenting on the thread to help boost the post’s algorithm, the idea being that the more people who join in and comment, the more people will see the post and donate – building up like a conga line.

The weekly conga is an inclusive and friendly corner of Facebook, where everyone is welcome (if you haven’t joined in, we highly recommend coming along to say hi one week!) – and last week, alongside donations, we asked our supporters to tell us what PC4R means to them. 

The messages we received were heart-warming, compassionate and filled with hope – and it made us realise that alongside helping refugees, the sense of community that the group has built over the years collectively lifts everyone’s spirits.

But don’t just take our word for it – here’s what our supporters, old and new, have to say about PC4R:

What does this group mean to me? Connection. It's about creating opportunities for folk to stay connected with their families and their loved ones. It about connecting those with the need to those with the resources to fill that need. It's about connecting us all to a shared community of fellow humans. It's about connecting us to a place of love and hope, where good things happen, and where our tiny contributions of money, or photos, or words, or cat GIFs, really matter.
Rachel Summers

I’m happy and grateful to be in a secure position and able to help. We are all just walking each other home, let’s help those we can.
Allison Done

I love this group, and being able to support this group, because it makes clear our common humanity. We need the same things. We need to be able to be in touch with our loved ones and to share what is most important for us. This group reminds me, especially when feeling a bit overwhelmed by difficult times and situations near and far, that there are good people making it possible for small gifts to make a big difference.
Hilary Campbell

What does PC4R mean to me? It's a simple way to make a difference with the ease of knowing it is compassionately and carefully run with the driving focus of getting life-saving and life-enhancing credit on the phones of those in need. It's being part of a group of like minded souls that you feel glad to see each week. It's a light in the darkness for all going through difficult times whatever the reason for them – donor and recipient alike. It's knowing that people care and care all the time. Not just when being seen by others or when it’s a fashionable 'cause' to support. It's being sincerely glad to be part of such a unique and special group that brightens the world for all of us.
Celia Whelan

PC4R is such a straightforward and obvious way of ensuring that those who have lost all their previous security of home, guaranteed shelter, family, relations, friends, educations, jobs, lack of fear etc, can at least communicate with those they have been separated from and also the organisations that are available to assist them. Without this 'lifeline' they are isolated, uniformed, lonely, desperate and fearful I imagine. If we can improve on any of those negative aspects of their lives then really I am very grateful that there is is mechanism whereby we can play a part in that.
Ginny Rattenbury

This group is about hope to me, especially in dark times. 
Nathalie Huegler

I joined PC4R because I was looking for a way to support refugees with phone credit. After being around for a few weeks, I had many more good reasons. But honestly, I'm still supporting the group because I can charge my own battery with good vibes every Friday. In the last years I have met so many nice cats, dogs, hens and humans from all over the world as never before and every Friday I can meet them again. I would never give that up.
پترا خانم

This group and everyone in it means the world. I became an admin because I wanted to do a little bit to help and it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done!
Kay Sidebottom

I support refugees because it is purely by an accident of birth that it's not me making the heartbreaking decision to leave my country, fleeing persecution with my kids and marching them across a continent to an uncertain future.
Lucy Watson

I started donating to this group after volunteering in Calais and remember the times of getting a code from a voucher and directly topping up a phone. Now I'm very grateful for the amazing system devised and run by so many admins. Just ingenious.
Micky LeVoguer

It's a way of acting in solidarity with people and showing a little humanity when our country has such hostile policies.
Ruth Hall

For me, the main appeal is the simplicity (for the donors if not the admin team) and the directness of being able to help someone. I have huge respect for the team that pulls this together every week, without fail. It is their dedication and teamwork as much as the very real need of the service users that makes me turn up here. How can I not at least do that?!
Kath Pickering

I'm a supporter because it's a simple, direct way to make a difference. And a lovely community. 
Erica Blakey

I came to PC4R to help. Because I hope that someone would help me if I were in need. Then I realised that being here also does me good. Because this group is brimming with hope, friendship, community and an opportunity to make things a little bit better.
Jane Eggers

The connection to individual people is important. Recipients and donors. PC4R is a community of individuals. The Conga is an expression of that. The postings after the Conga express it too. I love the positive, hopeful and down-to-earth humanity of PC4R. We are able to be our better selves. PC4R gives the opportunity to act in a way we would wish the world would always be. Thanks to all who make it possible. We are all connected – may that connection grow.
Judith Matthews

If you commented on our Friday Conga to tell us why you support us, but you can’t see your comment above, fear not! We received so many amazing replies, we will be publishing more later in the year.

And if you’re not already part of our growing community and have felt inspired by these words to join us in some capacity, you’re so welcome! You can request to join our closed Facebook group here, make a donation to help top up a refugee’s phone with life-saving credit here, or apply to volunteer with us here. Plus, make sure you never miss a Friday Conga again, by signing up to our mailing list for weekly reminders.

With gratitude,

Team PC4R

All change!

The way you donate to PC4R is changing. Here’s everything you need to know…

In the five-and-a-half years since Phone Credit For Refugees has been established, the organisation has achieved so much (not least providing close to 100,000 top-ups, thanks to you incredible lot).

Now, in order to both protect the interests of our current service users and increase our reach by expanding to new locations where our service is in high demand, we’ve had to make a decision about how to best move forwards, to ensure our future stability and growth. As such, we’re delighted to announce we will now be working in partnership with Donate4Refugees.

Donate4Refugees work with a range of grassroots organisations, supporting refugees the world over, and we know they are the perfect fit for us.

What does this mean for you?

We would like to make the switch to working with Donate4Refugees smoothly, so that our service users are impacted as little as possible. 

If you’re a supporter of our work, whether you donate via JustGiving or you make a bank transfer directly to Prism The Gift Fund (our previous partner), this change will affect you. 

We have a period of six weeks to move all our Direct Debit, standing order and one-off donors across from our old JustGiving page to our new platforms. This means:

• If you donate regularly each month via Direct Debit, you will need to cancel your current Direct Debit and set up a new monthly payment on the CAFdonate platform. To cancel your Direct Debit, you can contact your bank or building society on the phone or visit your local branch. Alternatively, if you have online banking, it’s possible to view your payments and cancel the regular payment directly on your app. Direct Debit payments can be cancelled at any time, but a bank will require at least one day’s notice before your next payment date.

• For one-off donations, for example if you donate as part of the weekly Friday Conga, you can now make these on the CAFdonate platform, or at our NEW JustGiving page. 

It’s vital for us that you, our donors, switch across to these new platforms as quickly as possible, so that we don’t lose your valuable support and contribution, and so that our service users who rely on us for phone credit don’t miss out.

New ways to donate

Alongside setting up your new Direct Debit HERE, or by making one-off donations at CAFdonate and JustGiving, we’re thrilled to announce our new text donation service:

For UK donors, there is now a NEW text donation service, which will operate in addition to our online donation platforms, helping to make donation to PC4R quicker and easier.

Simply text ‘5PHONECREDIT’ TO 70085 TO DONATE £5

OR

Text ‘10PHONECREDIT’ to 70085 to donate £10

For each text donation, you will be charged your donation, plus the cost of a standard text message.

For more information about how to donate, you can also check out the ‘How to donate’ link on our website, here.

Additional benefits

As well as allowing us greater reach for both existing and new service users, our move to work in partnership with Donate4Refugees offers us extra benefits, including:

• Fees

  Donate4Refugees will not charge PC4R any fees for the support and service they provide. Our previous partner charged a quarterly five per cent service charge. Moving forwards without this deduction means more of your donation will go towards helping those in need of phone credit (or, to put it another, way, we will be able to help five per cent more people than we are currently able to support).

• Partnerships

  Donate4Refugees work with a range of grassroots refugee organisations, which opens up the exciting possibility for future collaboration on mutually beneficial projects and complementary services (for example, funding the installation of Wi-Fi points in a specific camp, or funding a distribution of handsets).

While exciting, this change will see a period of adjustment as our volunteer management team works around the clock to ensure a smooth transition to the new platforms. Please help us continue to support refugees around the globe by switching your donation method as soon as possible, so that we can be certain of your continued support. Thank you!

The PC4R team

Thank you to all our runners in 2021!

Let’s face it: a third national lockdown wasn’t exactly the best start to the New Year. So, to help beat the (extreme) January blues, many of our brilliant supporters decided to brave the wintry weather and lace up their running shoes, for a socially distanced marathon challenge in aid of Phone Credit for Refugees. The goal? To run 26.2 miles throughout the month, to help raise money that the  fantastic admin team could convert into phone credit. So, how did #TeamPC4R get on? We caught up with Running with Refugees event organiser, Emma Manton, to find out…

Up and running

Emma set up Running with Refugees – a month-long virtual marathon challenge – back in 2017 to raise money for refugee charities and, for the second year running, she has chosen to support PC4R – something we’re utterly delighted about! So, how did we do?

‘This year, Running with Refugees raised just over £4,000 from 206 participants,’ says Emma. ‘People took place all over the world, including the USA and Canada, India, Australia and all over Europe. It was so successful that I had to do a second order of medals!’

And that’s just the money raised through the event’s entry fee – many of you also did additional fundraising, which is amazing!

Running through lockdown

Many people have experienced loneliness and isolation due to lockdown this year, which Emma believes has helped build a greater sense of understanding for those who rely on PC4R for connection and communication.

‘I think the lockdown experience this year has given us a visceral experience of feeling isolated from our support networks,’ she says. ‘We’ve relied on our digital connections more than ever and it only takes a tiny leap of imagination to visualise life without access to our phones. PC4R is such a simple idea and is so easy to understand – we give money and it means that someone can call their family. This year, that’s felt like a huge gift.

‘Personally, I really needed the physical challenge to get me through January! Making myself accountable to the challenge got me out of the door on more than one cold, rainy morning, and  hopefully the challenge has helped people create a positive habit that may stick.’

From Emma, and everyone at PC4R, we’re so thankful to every single one of you who has signed up and supported the challenge this year – you’re all marathon heroes!

The PC4R team

To find out more about Running with Refugees, check out runningwithrefugees.com