Coronavirus: Tech cash raised for refugee women's children

A woman is raising money to support refugee and asylum-seeking women with buying technology for their children during the coronavirus lockdown.

Rahma Duale set up the online campaign to help recipients of the charity Refugee Women In Bristol.

"I wanted to help them have a better chance at succeeding in schools and ultimately in life," said the 21-year-old from Bristol.

More than £1,000 has been donated since the page was set up on 22 April.

The charity, founded in 2003, works with hundreds of multi-faith and multi-cultural women and provides a safe space, as well as a variety of services including English lessons, lunch clubs for children, advice and advocacy services.

It said many of these women told them their children were falling behind with handing in work on time due to the lack of technology resources accessible to them at home.

Miss Duale has previously volunteered for the charity and wanted to do something to help the women in need.

"Not having access to technology will have a direct impact on the academic work of these children as they will miss homework deadlines as a result of something as small as not having a basic laptop," she said.

"I felt a responsibility to help these marginalised communities."

The charity said the women it helps had not yet benefitted from the Department of Education's free laptops and tablets initiative and the schools they are connected to were still working on technology schemes to help those without equipment at home.

Negat Hussein, an outreach worker with the charity, praised Miss Duale's initiative and said she "saw the need" and was "quick to step up".

"Many of the women we work with have fled war and some are domestic abuse survivors and the pandemic has brought back harrowing traumatic memories," she said.

Miss Duale added: "I grew up around empowering women and charity organisations and that's why this is so important to me."