Red Cross Blogs

I’m living on £10 for Refugee Week

By Mark Cox
June 21, 2011 at 11:48 am

As part of Refugee Week, Neil McKittrick – a Belfast-based refugee services manager – will be living off just £10 for a week to highlight the tough conditions many of asylum seekers face.

One of our key services in Belfast is to provide support to destitute refugees and asylum seekers.

Destitution occurs when an asylum seeker has absolutely no recourse to funds, or faces circumstances that mean they are without money and assistance for a period of time. The Red Cross responds by providing £10 supermarket vouchers each week for a maximum of four weeks to these extremely vulnerable individuals and families.

So far this year in Belfast, between January and May, we have issued almost 300 £10 vouchers to 141 people. And remember, each one of those numbers is a fellow human being living in desperate circumstances.

To be honest, I’ve often wondered how they manage it. And so, to mark Refugee Week (20-26 June), I’m putting myself into temporary destitution and trying to survive on a food budget of just £10for the whole week.

As you can imagine, this would be quite a challenge for anyone: let alone someone weighing more than 13 stone, over six-foot tall and who lives a very active life. Oh, and who also has Type 1 diabetes.

Many have questioned the sanity of the challenge – but none of my own characteristics are radically different to those who use our service. We have many people much bigger and active than I am, with a range of other challenging issues.

They face a lack of accommodation, no money for public transport and other, more serious concerns (including illnesses such as diabetes). And this comes on top of all the other difficulties associated with the asylum process.

I’ll be writing another blog at the end of the week outlining how I’ve managed in the struggle to survive for an entire week on a budget of £10! Wish me luck.

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Tags: Refugee Week, refugees

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