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, which used to be called Help Refugees, is a group based in the UK. It helps people who have had to leave their homes, known as refugees, all around the world. They give aid and speak up for these people. By 2016, it was the biggest group giving aid directly to people in Europe.
Contents
How Choose Love Started
The Beginning in Calais
Choose Love began almost by accident. It started with a social media campaign in August 2015. Radio presenter Lliana Bird, TV presenter Dawn O'Porter, and Josie Naughton wanted to help a friend. Their friend was collecting donations for people in a camp in Calais, France. This camp was often called the "Jungle."
Lliana Bird and Josie Naughton decided to help Bird's old acting teacher, Tom Radcliffe. He wanted to raise £1,000 and fill a van with donations to take to Calais. The three women used the hashtag #HelpCalais on social media. They asked their friends and famous contacts to share the message. The response was huge!
Within 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 get the donations to Calais.
A week after they started, a sad picture of a young Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, was in the news. This made many more people aware of the situation. Donations grew very quickly. Lliana Bird's sister, who was helping from Tel Aviv, set up an Amazon wish list for items needed in the camp. She kept adding things like boots and sleeping bags, and they would disappear because people were buying them so fast!
The Big Yellow Group told them that 7,000 packages arrived in just one day. With only six volunteers, the women asked for more help on social media. Many people came to volunteer. Companies like Domino's Pizza and Nando's even sent food for the volunteers. Soon, the group had 15 storage rooms full of donations.
Helping People in the Camp
Bird, Lawrence, Naughton, and O'Porter went to Calais to see how to get the donations to the right people. They expected to find big aid groups like the Red Cross or the UNHCR there. But there were no large groups. Instead, they met people living in the camp and individuals who were already helping. One person was Liz Clegg, a former firefighter, who was organizing food and aid.
This encouraged the women to work with the people already on the ground. On September 15, they rented a warehouse in Calais to store donations. They even met a stranger who donated £900 for shelving for the warehouse.
As more volunteers arrived, Help Refugees started building temporary shelters in the camp. They also gave out goods and provided other services that were missing. They worked with local groups. The volunteers helped sort donations, build shelters, and count the people in the camp. Friends of the founders moved to France to help organize volunteers and shelter spaces. More donations and volunteers came, and they found an even bigger warehouse.
The founders, Bird, Lawrence, Naughton, and O'Porter, mostly worked from Lawrence's home in London. They fit this work around their regular jobs. Lawrence focused less on her business, and Bird reduced her media work. By January 2016, Naughton quit her job with Coldplay to work full-time for Help Refugees. Lawrence called them "the accidental charity." Lliana Bird left Choose Love in 2018. Today, Josie Naughton is the CEO, and Dani Lawrence is still a director.
Growing Beyond France
In October 2015, many people arrived at the Moria Refugee Camp in Lesbos, Greece. Diseases were starting to spread. Help Refugees asked for doctors to go there. They offered to pay for flights and housing if doctors could stay for more than a week. They managed to fund 30 doctors. By June 2016, Help Refugees was helping 26 projects across Europe.
Since 2015, Choose Love has raised over £120 million. They have worked in 50 countries around the world.
Becoming an Independent Charity
Choose Love first worked with a group called Prism the Gift Fund. Prism is a registered charity in the UK. They helped Choose Love with legal and money matters until May 2024. Since May 2024, Choose Love has been its own independent charity.
Why the Name Changed
In January 2021, the group changed its name from Help Refugees to Choose Love. They said the old name was good, but the new name showed what they wanted to be: "We want a world of love, welcome and justice – not just charity." The group was already using the name Choose Love in the United States.
Changes in Northern France
In November 2021, Choose Love announced they would stop funding most groups in Calais and Dunkirk by the end of the year. They continued to support ECPAT International and Safe Passage UK. This decision led to some discussion about how celebrity-backed charities operate.
Choose Love in the 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 groups around 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 its fundraising events. These include Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jude Law, Tom Odell, Nicola Coughlan, and Pamela Anderson.
Working with Others
In June 2017, Help Refugees worked with London's V&A for an event called Help Refugees: Our Shared Future. This event had discussions to start the 2017 Refugee Week.
Choose Love and Shopping
In November 2015, Help Refugees launched 'Choose Love' T-shirts at a fundraiser. These shirts were designed by British designer Katharine Hamnett. The money made from selling these T-shirts, which were sold by online store ASOS, goes to Choose Love. In 2017, they also started 'Choose Love' music events, including club nights.
In November 2017, and every November since, Choose Love has opened a special pop-up shop in Soho, London. They also have a website. At these shops, people can buy essential items for refugees, like warm clothes or food, as if they were Christmas presents. In 2018, a second Choose Love store opened in New York City. An artwork donated by Banksy was shown in the London shop and could be won.
