GARAS stands for Gloucestershire Action for Refugees & Asylum Seekers.  It is a Gloucester-based charity that helps those who have fled persecution (including imprisonment, torture and abuse), conflict, or famine etc in their home country and who have had to take extreme risks to reach a place of safety.  The work of the charity includes supporting those who face being returned and assisting those who are recognised as refugees.

The processing of refugees and asylum seekers is a lengthy process, during which time people and families are housed temporarily, are not allowed to work, and subsist on very little money while they wait to achieve security and respect and the chance to rebuild their personal and working lives in peace.

If you want to learn more about the work of GARAS, visit their website at garas.org.uk

FGR & The Supporters Club teamed up with GARAS to bring 24 people to the Burton Albion game just after Christmas.  There were men, women and 1 young girl who came along to the match.  The range of nationalities was huge!  There were representatives from Guatemala, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Russia, Iran, El Salvador & Kuwait among the visitors.

As the Charity representative coordinating the visit said, “it was wet, cold and a bad result for FGR but I think that this sort of thing doesn’t matter to football fans…….It was a lot of fun to watch our clients dancing to the goal, and just to spend time with them that wasn’t work-based….. We had a lot of happy clients come to GARAS the next day and several have texted me to say how much they enjoyed the evening”.

Well done to the club for supporting this initiative!

Some of our visitors, all first-timers to FGR, after the game.