There are different ways in which people help and support us. Some people give their time and become visitors. Others are not be able to commit to this, but help us financially or by donating clothing or toiletries. As a charity with limited means, we are grateful for any help we receive.
If you would like to help GDWG financially, you can either make a one-off donation, via the Gift Aid: make a gift today link on the right hand side of every page, or if you would like to set up a standing order, please contact us. The GDWG is a small charity that relies mainly on grant-making trusts to fund its work, but also on private donations. You can also send cheques, made payable to Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, to our office.
If you are not able to help us financially, but are keen to support our work, perhaps you may be able to send us any good quality second hand clothing, which we can distribute to detainees. Please bear in mind that most detainees are relatively young men, and are in need of casual clothing that they can wear while detained in the centres.
Since joining GDWG in 1996, I have visited people from fifteen countries - some for months, others just once. I have met teenagers who had no idea whether their families were alive; young men and women who had been beaten up or tortured; people who were convinced they would be killed if they were returned home; people who had lived in Britain for years.
I am not a lawyer, doctor or immigration officer: it is not my job to sort out people's cases, diagnose their illnesses or assess their asylum claims. I am just there to be a friend, someone who cares and who will walk alongside them on their journey.
In the process, I have learnt to recite the days of the week in Arabic, to say 'See you next week' in Albanian and 'How are you?' in Edo, and (with much drawing of vegetables) how to make an Egyptian salad. I have had my horizons extended, my stereotypes shaken and my life enriched by the people who have opened their lives and their hearts to me.
Life in detention is uncertain
"It is very important that detainees should have visitors as the environment is not pleasant at all. You get so lonely and depressed. Life in detention is very uncertain as you don't know what is going to happen to you. There is a lot of sick and depressed people in detention and without the help of GDWG, it would be very difficult to cope with life there."
Ex-detainee
