Make the world their Oyster!

The world is not everyone's Oyster - help our friends travel to college! 

We are a group of SW London charities who support people accommodated in local hotels while they wait for their asylum claims to be granted. 

The hotel residents are happy to be safe and housed, but they only receive £8 per week to cover all their expenses. The hotel is expected to be used as 'initial accommodation' for up to 6 weeks before people are moved to longer-term housing and £39 per week, but some of the residents have been living in this situation for almost a year now with no indication of when their cases will be progressed. 

The residents are extremely motivated to use this waiting time to learn English and other skills, such as IT, and many have enrolled in ESOL and Functional Skills courses at Kingston College. The college is extremely supportive and has offered free tuition as well as Free College Meals, but under the 'no recourse to public funds' rules, they are not permitted to fund travel for asylum seekers.

The Home Office has not progressed our requests for exceptional funding to cover the bus journey to college, despite the fact that these people should really be receiving £39 per week which would enable them to choose to spend money on travel.

Our partner charities responded so quickly to our emergency request for Oyster cards to get everyone to their first week of the new term while we tried to secure more funding. However, we are now asking for more support to enable the 30 students to complete their 11-week terms. 

£9 will pay for one student to attend their programme (3x per week) for a week.

£99 will pay for 1 student to attend the 11-week course.

£3000 will pay for all 30 students to attend all term.