Choose Love (organisation) facts for kids
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| Founded | 2015 |
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| Founders | Lliana Bird, Josie Naughton, Dawn O'Porter, Dani Lawrence |
| Location |
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| Origins | London/Calais |
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Area served
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Currently, Europe and the Middle East |
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Formerly called
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Help Refugees |
Choose Love (formerly Help Refugees) is a charity based in the United Kingdom. It helps people who have had to leave their homes, often called refugees. The charity gives them aid and speaks up for their rights around the world. In 2016, it became the biggest group giving aid directly to people in Europe.
Contents
How Choose Love Started
The Beginning in Calais
The charity Help Refugees started almost by accident in 2015. A radio presenter named Lliana Bird, TV presenter Dawn O'Porter, and Josie Naughton began a social media campaign. They wanted to help a friend collect donations for refugees in the "Jungle" camp in Calais, France.
In August 2015, Bird and Naughton offered to help Bird's old acting teacher. He wanted to raise £1,000 and fill a van with donations for Calais. The three women decided to use the hashtag #HelpCalais online. They wanted to tell more people about the situation and raise money.
They used their social media pages and asked famous friends to share the message. The response was huge! In just a few days, they had so many donations that they needed a storage space. A company called Big Yellow Group gave them a space for free.
Dani Lawrence, whose father was a refugee, offered to help. She knew how to get the donations to Calais. A week after they started, a sad picture of a two-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, was in the news. This made even more people aware of the situation, and donations grew very quickly.
Bird's sister helped by setting up an Amazon wish list for items needed in the camp. She kept adding things like boots, sleeping bags, and tents. They kept "disappearing" because people were buying them so fast! The Big Yellow Group told them that 7,000 packages arrived in one day.
With only six volunteers, the women asked for more help on social media. Many people came to sort donations. Domino's Pizza and Nando's even sent food for the volunteers. Soon, the group had 15 storage rooms full of items.
Bird, Lawrence, Naughton, and O'Porter visited Calais. They wanted to find the best way to get donations to the people who needed them. They expected to see big charities like the Red Cross or the UNHCR. But no large charities were there.
They met people living in the camp and others who were already helping. This encouraged them to work with these individuals. They wanted to find solutions together.
On September 15, they returned to Calais and rented a warehouse for donations. While buying shelves, Lawrence met a stranger who had raised £5,000 for Calais. He offered to pay for the shelves, which cost £900.
As more volunteers arrived, Help Refugees began building temporary shelters. They also gave out goods and offered other services. They worked with local groups whenever they could. The charity helped with sorting donations, building shelters, and counting people in the camp. Friends of the founders even moved to France to help. They organized volunteers and found places for refugees to stay. More and more donations and volunteers joined, and they found an even bigger warehouse.
The four founders often worked from Lawrence's home in London. They fit their charity work around their regular jobs. Lawrence focused less on her business, and Bird reduced her media work. By January 2016, Naughton left her job with Coldplay to work full-time for Help Refugees. Lawrence called them "the accidental charity." Naughton and Bird led Help Refugees together until 2018. Bird left that year, but Naughton is now the CEO, and Lawrence is still a director.
Growing Beyond France
In October 2015, many people arrived at the Moria Refugee Camp in Lesbos, Greece. Diseases started to spread. Help Refugees asked for doctors to go there. They offered to pay for flights and places to stay if doctors could help for more than a week. They found funding for 30 doctors. By June 2016, Help Refugees was helping 26 projects across Europe.
Since 2015, Help Refugees has helped over 722,500 people around the world.
Working with Prism the Gift Fund
Choose Love works with an organization called Prism the Gift Fund. Prism is a registered charity in the UK. It helps groups like Choose Love with legal and financial matters. Prism also provides "back-office support," which means they help with things like paperwork and managing money.
Why the Name Changed
In January 2021, the organization changed its name from Help Refugees to Choose Love. They said the old name had been good, but the new one showed what they wanted to be even better. They explained, "We want a world of love, welcome and justice – not just charity." The organization was already using the name Choose Love in the United States.
Stopping Work in Calais and Dunkirk
In November 2021, Choose Love announced on Instagram that it would stop funding most groups in Calais and Dunkirk by the end of the year. They continued to support two specific organizations there: ECPAT International and Safe Passage UK.
How They Raise Awareness
Media and News
The Guardian newspaper chose Help Refugees as one of its partner charities for its 2016 Charity Appeal. Help Refugees also counted the number of people in the Calais refugee camp. This count was reported by news outlets all over the world. A BBC documentary called This World: Calais, The End of the Jungle showed interviews with staff and volunteers from Help Refugees.
Famous Supporters
Many famous people have supported Choose Love and their fundraising events. These include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jude Law, Tom Odell, and Pamela Anderson.
Working with Others
In June 2017, Help Refugees worked with London's V&A. They held a series of talks called Help Refugees: Our Shared Future. These talks helped launch the 2017 Refugee Week.
Choose Love Products and Shops
In November 2015, Help Refugees started selling 'Choose Love' T-shirts. These shirts were designed by British designer Katharine Hamnett. The money made from selling these T-shirts, which were sold by UK online store ASOS, went to Help Refugees. In 2017, Help Refugees also started 'Choose Love' music events to raise money. These included club nights with the electronic music website Resident Advisor.
In November 2017, they opened a special 'Choose Love' pop-up shop in Soho, London. They also launched a website. At the shop and online, people could buy essential items for refugees. These items were presented as if they were Christmas presents. In late 2018, a second Choose Love store opened in New York City. An artwork donated by Banksy was shown in the London shop, and people could win it.
