Aims and Objectives

S.A.R aims to provide services to the Afghan and all other refugee communities in the United Kingdom. In particular, we seek to provide the community with information and guidance relating to housing, immigration, Welfare, Education, and Legal matters and also social, religious and cultural activities.

We also provide long term training for unemployed refugees, helping them to develop their skills to enable them to find work in the future and to this end we aim to further develop our Women’s Group, details of which are outlined above. With all our employment projects we seek to be able to issue recognised certificates to those who successfully attend the course.

Among our other projects is the further development of our supplementary School (the Mother Tongue School) and the re-establishment of the football team attached to our Youth Club, along with the further development of the club’s karate and music sections. We also publish a newsletter. We seek to involve all of our members in all aspects of S.A.R. including its decision and policy making processes.

We aim to arrange full support for the Afghan and other refugees in this country and make them aware of their fundamental rights in regard to immigration and other matters. We also aim to make the wider community conscious of the circumstances which have led to the Afghan people being driven out of their country, and to highlight their status with the U.N. E.E.C. etc. under the Refugees Charter. We provide support for international aid agencies and intervene where appropriate, to deal with the growing problems that refugees face. To that end, we continue to support and to extend solidarity with other refugee organisations.

Education

The Supplementary School continues despite problems with funding and staff. The students are arranged in three different grades depending upon their age, level of interest and background. The School is active every Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. We run a Summer Holiday Project every year thanks to the London Borough of Ealing, and the Hilden Charitable Fund. Throughout the week we also offer English classes for adults. SAR also runs a summer holiday project in which we take our children to parks, museums, the seaside, etc.

Immigration

New Afghan refugees enter the UK daily because of the ongoing war and struggles the country faces. SAR meets and helps each and every one of the Afghan refugees that come to this country. We help these refugees through their initial difficulties with language, status, orientation etc. and work with immigration officials and the Home Office to help them obtain refugee status and other status. The infamous Asylum Act has been a major problem affecting every single refugee and the behaviour of certain officials toward refugees in general remains a cause for concern; the Government’s attitude towards the bogus Afghan authorities, which is a at best inconsistent, is also adversely affecting our clients.

Accomodation

Every since the Asylum Act was introduced in late 1991 we have face a lot of problems with referring clients to boroughs for accommodation and these problems continue today. The housing situation remains difficult but we are continuing to try and find ways to improve it.