WHAT WE DO
O’s Refugee Aid Team (ORAT) has three simple goals.
1. To raise awareness, funds and goods for supported frontline refugee aid response teams.
2. To lobby the UK government to safeguard every human being’s right to safe passage and sanctuary.
3. To mobilise communities of all ages to help refugees however they can.
​
To learn more about the response teams we support, please SEE HERE.
OUR HISTORY IN BRIEF
2015
O's Refugee Aid Team (ORAT) initially began life as an arm of works under our sister charity, Making Herstory, following the news of the death of Alan Kurdi in September 2015.
The shock of learning that children like two-year-old Alan were dying in their quest for safety led to the establishment of ORAT's initial goal: to identify ways to assist women and children especially in the refugee 'camps' of northern France.
2017
After two years of volunteer works in northern France with a wide range of charities, we began to realise that our hopes of European governments working together to assist and house all refugees were not going to be realised.
Which meant our efforts would need to keep going far longer than we had intended.
So in 2017, we separated from Making Herstory, and officially became an independent organisation.
2018
Inspired by a baby named Raehan born in the refugee camps of Calais, our founder, Onjali Q Rauf, went on to write The Boy at the Back of the Class: a children's middle-grade novel about a refugee boy walking into a classroom in the UK.
The bestselling, multi-award winning novel has since become the foundation of our works, with at least 50% of all its incomes being invested back into our works and running costs.
2019-Present
At ORAT, we go wherever we know our input, funds and aid will have the greatest positive impacts on the brave refugees we are seeking to help.
​
For us, that means working exclusively with the frontline s/heroes at Mobile Refugee Support, the retiree volunteers at Association Salam Kitchens, and the grandmaman of Calais (as we call her): the one and only Dorothy Saudemont.
​​
We are proud to have previously spent two years helping to kick-start the initial creation of Maison Sesame, and to have delivered aid and crucial funds to Refugee Community Kitchens, Refugee Women's Centre and others over the years. Most especially following the sudden departure and withdrawal of Choose Love from assisting frontline refugee teams in France.
​
All thanks to you.
WHO WE ARE
.jpg)
​Onjali Q. Raúf, Founder & Director
​
Onjali first began her volunteer works in the refugee camps of Calais and Dunkirk in 2015 under our sister charity, Making Herstory. In 2017, inspired by a refugee baby named Raehan she met in 2016, she wrote her first children’s book, The Boy at the Back of the Class. The book now forges the foundation of O's Refugee Aid Team's income and awareness-raising legacy.
Loves: Travelling, the ocean, and the staggering kindness of people.
Quote: “It’s truly amazing seeing what can happen from a single idea or a single action. Never underestimate the power of one…plus one.”
​Sulaiman Choudhury, Trustee
​
With 15 years of experience working for a leading Global Technology and Management Consulting company, Sulaiman is a specialist in due diligence, business change and technology automation & deployment. He brings an analytical and strategic foresight to all of ORAT's works, goals and long-term visions.
Loves: Travelling, reading science-fiction, his family and his bicycle!
Quote: “I was brought up to believe that the true measure of value of any talent you have, is in how you best use it to benefit others.”
​Yasmin Ishaq, Trustee & Regional Director (N.England)
​Lecturer, physician, and Chair of the Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance (REMA) which in 2019, won the Queen’s Award for its services, Yasmin Ishaq began her history with O’s Refugee Aid Teamas the very first volunteer to join us in our first convoy in 2015.
Mobilising hundreds of people across Rotherham and Sheffield to aid us in our works, Yasmin's tireless works ensures each and every convoy is supplied with the best stock.
Loves: All things Brontë, Tolkien, and hitting the road with her children.
Quote: “Strength of character lies in turning our own difficult roads into beautiful paths for others to gently tread upon.”
​Farrah Serroukh, Trustee
​An award-winning Learning Programme Leader at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and a former Legal Advisor in Asylum and Human Rights, Farrah is dedicated to aiding marginalised communities. Her legal expertise and passion for forging realistic solutions to resolve any given problem, big or small helps elevate our works and ambitions.
Loves: Advocating for every child’s right to access high quality literature.
Quote: “We cannot quell the root of the suffering, but we can diminish the pain by meeting such strength with love, compassion and humanity.”
FORMER ORAT PERSONNEL
Caroline Cottet
Former Director of French Operations
Caroline was an invaluable part of our team, leading us and our works through the Covid pandemic, forging new partnerships, and overseeing the teams we strive to assist expertly.
A former academic researcher, her legacy continues through the works of Refugee Women’s Centre and Maison Sesame which she helped found.
​
After 2.5 years with us, she moved on to a world of new adventures — but will always be a part of our family. ​
​Jude Habib
Former Trustee