Team
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Tim Finch Tim is the founding director of Sponsor Refugees. He was an early advocate of introducing sponsorship when working with Citizens UK on the refugee crisis in 2015 and 2016. He is a former director of communications at the Refugee Council and head of migration research at the think tank, IPPR. He set up the migration communications agency, IMiX and is the founding chair of the migration and arts charity, Counterpoints Arts. You can contact Tim here. |
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Hannah Feldman Hannah is Project Manager for Sponsor Refugees. Hannah joined Citizens UK in September 2017, having completed her MA in Social Development at University of Sussex. Prior to this, Hannah was Community Fundraiser for Restore, a mental health and employment charity. She has worked in various roles for charities based in the UK and further afield, including Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in Thailand, and refugee charity Young Roots in Croydon. Hannah first became involved in Sponsor Refugees as a volunteer, and is Co-Chair of Waltham Forest Community Sponsorship group. You can contact Hannah here. |
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Bekele Woyecha Bekele is the Senior Project Manager for Sponsor Refugees. He has worked for Citizens UK since 2011, working mainly on Refugees Welcome and community sponsorship in recent years. Previously Bekele was a human rights activist, writer, community leader and volunteer for the British Red Cross. He also held senior managerial positions in government departments in his home country Ethiopia. Bekele was the human rights defender fellow of the University of Nottingham in 2009, where he studied International Human Rights Law. He also studied Nonviolent Conflict at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, USÁ and took part in the Global Change Agents Programme at Harvard Kennedy School in 2017. You can contact Bekele here. |
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Olwen Thomas
Olwen has had many different roles in the agricultural sector. She recently has organised the Agri Academy Rural leadership programme which involved personal development, leadership training and increasing political awareness. She had led many groups to Brussels to meet political leaders in the European Parliament to enable the farmers to understand the policy making processes. She has recently been very involved with supporting refugees and asylum seekers. Olwen is a key member of Croeso Abergwaun (Fisghaurd, West Wales) one of the first groups to sponsor in the country. |
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Neil Jameson - Chair Neil Jameson has been Executive Director of Citizens UK for the last 29 years. As such, he and his colleague organisers are now driving the UK’s largest and most diverse Community Organising body, with broad-based Citizens alliances in London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Birmingham, Tyne and Wear, Wales and Leeds. Neil is first and foremost a Community Organiser – seeking out talented leaders and young organisers who have the courage and commitment to work with others democratically to strengthen civil society and pursue the common good. |
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Rabbi Danny Rich Rabbi Danny Rich has been the Senior Rabbi & Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism since 2005 and was rabbi to Kingston Liberal Synagogue for nearly two decades. Rabbi Rich is a Justice of the Peace, and a hospital and prison chaplain. He is a President of the Council of Christians & Jews and a member of the Council of Imams and Rabbis. He was a vice chair of the National Refugee Welcome Board which pioneered the idea of community sponsorship of refugees in 2015. |
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Major Nick Coke Major Nick Coke is the co-leader of Raynes Park Community Church and Refugee Response Coordinator for The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He, along with other civil society leaders, helped to co-design the Community Sponsorship of Refugees scheme with government and in February 2017 his church was the third group to receive a refugee family under the programme. He was commissioned as a Salvation Army officer in 2000 and has held appointments in Cardiff and London. He has been involved with Citizens UK and community organising for many years, firstly in Tower Hamlets and now in Merton. |
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Neil Murray Neil Murray is a doctor based in Edinburgh. He trained in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine before becoming a general practitioner 15 years ago. He has worked in the fields of pain management and addictions medicine, and has experience working with local authorities on a variety of health care issues. He is a trustee of Volant Trust which is a funder of Sponsor Refugees. |
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Charlotte Phillips Charlotte Phillips leads Amnesty International’s advocacy on refugee rights. Her passion for working with refugees began in 2003 when she started volunteering with Student Action For Refugees (STAR), while studying for a Masters in Anthropology and Development at SOAS university. She has since worked for a number of local refugee organisations, including Detention Action and as a legal caseworker for Refugee and Migrant Justice, representing asylum seekers at their asylum appeals and bail hearings. Charlotte has worked at Amnesty International for eight years and has carried out field research for the organisation in numerous countries, most recently in the Middle East. In her spare time, Charlotte has co-founded the Welcome Committee, a community sponsorship group and is also training to become a yoga teacher and doula. |
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