Staff At Law Firm’s Glasgow Office Raise Funds For Charity That Helps Refugees Arriving To City

Refuweegee is set to benefit from a record £5,000 donation from Irwin Mitchell’s Glasgow office, after staff at the firm spent a year raising funds for the good cause.

Refuweegee was voted for by staff at the office to be their Charity of the Year for 2017 as part of a nationwide initiative established by the Irwin Mitchell Charities Foundation (IMCF).

Established in 1997, IMCF is an independent registered charity set up by the firm which has donated more than £1.6 million to third sector organisations.

Following 12 months of fundraising activities, including a campaign to raise £20,000 in a month to celebrate IMCF’s 20^th anniversary, nationally, the law firm raised a record £180,000 during 2017. In doing so, the majority of the firm’s regional offices, including Glasgow, smashed their own fundraising records in the process.

The bumper donation will help Refuweegee continue to make sure that refugees arriving in Glasgow are welcomed and made to feel at home as quickly as possible, like Yaman, who was only 19-years-old when he arrived from Syria.

Yaman said: “Refuweegee has helped me a lot. It has helped me with my English and to understand people in Glasgow and life in Scotland. I think the biggest way that Refuweegee has helped me is psychologically, by changing my way of thinking. When I first arrived, I was very negative and critical, but they charity helped me to become more positive and cheerful.

“Refuweegee is so important. When people first arrive to a new place, they are afraid. They are scared they might not be accepted, that people won’t like them. The welcome received from Refuweegee eases the pressure and stress.”

Selina Hales, project founder and director at Refuweegee, said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this donation from Irwin Mitchell’s Glasgow office. £5,000 is a considerable sum of money for a small charity like Refuweegee and we are delighted that it will help us to deliver a project that has been in the making for a long time. We will be using the funds to set up our ‘Donation collection with a difference’ project, which will involve willing volunteers from both old and new Scots communities, a box bike and regular collections from our donation drop offs all over Glasgow.

“We are so excited that this project will offer a new type of volunteering with Refuweegee and that it will feed into the city’s carbon reduction aims by getting our donations collected and delivered by bike! We would like to thank Irwin Mitchell for helping get this project started but even more importantly, thank you for making what we do at Refuweegee possible and yet further demonstrating that people really do make Glasgow.”

Mark Higgins, regional managing partner at Irwin Mitchell’s Glasgow office, said:

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“It’s an honour to be able to provide this record donation to a truly fantastic cause in our local community.

“Last year we celebrated 20 years of the IMCF and I am delighted that thanks to the creativity and generosity of Irwin Mitchell employees, we made our anniversary year a record breaking one.

“Everyone at IM is passionate about giving back to the communities we operate in and making a real difference to the lives of those supported by our Charities of the Year.

“We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved last year. Hearing how Refuweegee is going to use the donation, and the positive impact that will have on those coming to the city, is spurring on our staff to think of bigger and better ways to fundraise for this year’s good cause.” Mark Higgins - Chairman of WJM, Chairman of Ascent, and Partner of Irwin Mitchell