About us

About RAVEN

RAVEN – Refugee And Volunteer Empowerment Network – is a non-profit organisation. Its objectives are to raise public awareness about the experiences and needs of refugees and support and direct volunteers who want to offer practical support, including fieldwork with refugees.

RAVEN’s founders were first touched by the refugee crisis in the autumn of 2015 when they spent time volunteering in Greece and Calais. At that time they were founding members of a new charity set up to collect and deliver urgently needed aid to refugees in Europe. They saw just how effective grassroots organisations could be in collecting, delivering and distributing essential aid in what are often chaotic and challenging conditions. They witnessed everyday people pulling together to fill the often huge gaps in humanitarian aid and to provide support to thousands of refugees.

RAVEN is a group of like-minded people whose experience and involvement in the refugee crisis have led to a shared vision –

‘A world where refugees are treated with dignity.’

RAVEN believes strongly in the potential of all human beings and knows that when people are empowered with the truth, great things can and do happen.

Our founding members learned a great deal from these experiences. They realised that the need for volunteers on the ground in Europe is huge and constantly growing and that helping the public understand the reality of the refugee crisis was an important task. It was clear to them that volunteering with refugees wasn’t confined only to those with specific humanitarian qualifications or years of experience in the field. There were people from all backgrounds and walks of life (students, teachers, engineers, nurses, hotel managers, Grandmas, retired physiotherapists) making a huge difference to the lives of people in crisis right on our doorstep.

One thing that struck them all was the importance of offering humane and dignified support at all times. In the heat of the moment, when conditions were often chaotic it was possible to lose sight of the fact that each person is entitled to respectful support and freedom of choice.

Thus RAVEN was born, an organisation that promotes the ‘Do No Harm’ principle and positively empowers both refugees and volunteers.