Refugee Radio was founded as a limited non-profit company in 2008 and became a charity in 2010.

A brief introduction to our work

What we do

Refugee Radio organises refugee music events and puts the media back into the hands of the community. We broadcast a weekly radio program on local FM and internet podcast where we interview refugees and asylum seekers living in Brighton and Hove. Our “Refugee Desert Island Discs” project is all about people sharing their culture through the music they brought with them when they came to the UK.

Refugee Radio was formed by a group of former MACS and BHT refugee workers in response to research we conducted where refugees told us that some of the biggest problems they faced were around isolation and negative media. After our first year of Refugee Radio, our service user evaluation showed that a whopping 81% of our participants felt less isolated in the community after taking part and 100% believe that we can overcome social divisions through media and culture.

Taking part in Refugee Radio can offer a real boost to people's self confidence and conversational skills. Our guests don't have to use their real names or talk about anything unsettling and we pay expenses. We are really keen to work with as many people as possible and help their voices to get heard; they can either contact us directly or we are happy to accept referrals, either for one-to-one interviews or larger groups. Refugee Radio can also be incorporated into classes and training sessions (contact the project for more details).

This year we are especially keen to record interviews with asylum seekers or those who have been refused asylum as part of our Refugee Desert Island Discs project. We are also on the hunt for refugee musicians to audition for our Refugee Radio Orchestra programme 2010 (please contact us for more).

Policies

We want to be transparent and accountable. All of our policies are available to the public on request. This includes our confidentiality policy for participants in our broadcasts, our safeguarding policy and our conflict of interests policy.

Who we are

Alexis Condon: Adviser

Alexis Condon is the editor and producer of the Today Programme on Radio 4, the station's most popular programme with over six million listeners every week. His work has taken him all over the world and he is an accomplished news journalist.

Gianpaolo Boldrini: Trainer

Gianpaolo Boldrini is a founder of the Migrant English Project. He has worked with refugees and asylum seekers for several years as a project manager in mentoring, health and English language projects.

Zoe Rosenfield : Director

Zoe Rosenfeld is a founder of the Migrant English Project and a Trustee of the Refugee Trust. She has several years experience of working with young women and refugees.

Christianne Silverwood: Director

Christianne is an immigration solicitor and has several years experience in working with asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants.

Stephen Silverwood: Chief Executive

Stephen manages the Refugee Radio projects. He is also a writer and radio presenter.

Celia Turley: Presenter

Celia was a volunteer with Refugee Radio. She has presented a number of her own shows, helped to co-ordinate the live events, assisted with the training sessions and worked to build our local networks.

Martha McAlpine: Filmaker

Martha is a documentary filmaker and member of the Refugee Radio Action Force. She has kindly given us permission to share the recent documentary on our home page.

Refugee Radio Action Force

Our work is overseen by a steering committe of refugees, asylum seekers and those working with these groups. Please get in touch if you would like more information.

The Argus

The story behind Refugee Rado was feautured in a recent article in The Argus newspaper by journalist Nione Meakin.

View the full article for more.

Tara Hanks

The Refugee Radio Party 2010 was reviewed by our favourite novelist, Brighton's own Tara Hanks.

View the full story at her excellent blog.

Don't Panic Magazine

Journalist Emma Cave smashes some asylum myths and highlights the work of Refugee Radio in this exellent article for Don't Panic Magazine. Includes bon mots such as "Jo Whiley eat your heart out (and then go sick it back up in the street)".

View the full article for more.