"Accidental activists: the British women on the front line of the refugee crisis"
Arts & Entertainment
Help Refugees
Responding to the refugee crisis
Borkowski took on the dual role of maximising the impact of grassroots charity Help Refugees’ ambitious £1million fundraising campaign and ensuring that the true story of the Calais ‘Jungle’ and other camps around Europe and the Middle East reached the news – including channels hostile to refugees.
We employed our music, culture and showbiz black books created a major media profile around such fundraising and awareness building events as Katherine Hamnett’s now-iconic Choose Love fashion range, Sophie Dahl and Jamie Cullum’s storytelling and musical workshops at the Calais Jungle, comedy series Stand Up for Refugees, gig series Bands 4 Refugees, A Night with Jamie Cullum at the Jazz Café, Rave for Refugees and Refugenes – in which major figures from the arts and media world revealed their own refugee backstories. We gained widespread media attention which reached both fundraisers and audiences who may not have been aware of the crisis.
Throughout this campaign we also seeded news stories in the British, French and international media about the latest situation in the Calais ‘Jungle’ camp, successfully positioning Help Refugees as a truth-telling authority and key source of news about the crisis.
£1m raised
In Choose Love 2016-17 fundraising drive
270+ pieces of coverage
In national and international news
120+
items of national arts, culture & showbiz coverage on Choose Love fundraising events
Bands 4 Refugees NME Front Cover and partnership with NME Awards
Help Refugees used as a key news source for journalists covering the refugee crisis
News & Media
"Refugee campaigners launch legal challenge over Home Office 'failure' to implement Dubs scheme"
"How it feels to ... be the child of a refugee"