Who are we and how we started

The Rural Refugee Network (RRN) was set up at the end of 2015 by a group of volunteers in the Hampshire and West Sussex area who wanted to do something practical to help those impacted by the Syrian refugee crisis.

Recognising that the Government’s Syrian Vulnerable Persons initiative was not accessing opportunities in rural areas, RRN took the decision to create something to address this. Our group is made up of individuals from a cross-section of life and includes senior-level leaders from health and social care, business, education, construction, media and planning.

RRN’s remit has since expanded beyond the Syrian refugee crisis. Following the deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan in 2021, and the subsequent evacuation of some Afghan nationals to the UK, RRN has been supporting several Afghan families resettled in the Hampshire area. With the launch of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) in the UK in January 2022, RRN expects to continue working with resettled Afghan citizens for the foreseeable future.

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, RRN has been committed to assisting Ukrainian refugees settling locally, and is also proud to support people widely affected by conflict, including several local asylum-seeking families in Hampshire. We now employ a part-time CEO, and have developed discreet projects in addition to our core resettlement support. These projects respond to identified needs where the experience and networks we have built up over the past decade enable us to respond effectively, such as ESOL classes for Ukranian refugees and our Youth Discovery project supporting local unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people.

As the world continues to be rocked by long-standing and emerging conflicts, the work of RRN remains as important as ever and is likely to grow.