Leaving a legacy to PoC

You can continue to help us after you have gone by leaving us a legacy. Sadly, the need for our support will be necessary as long as there are brutal and oppressive regimes in the world, but with your help we can go on helping those who are brave enough to speak up for themselves and others.

Legacies have enabled us do great things over the years. One in particular allowed us to set-up a special post-graduate funding scheme for refugee professionals to requalify after being forced into exile.

One of our successful applicants was a teacher from Sudan and was politically active for many years. She was a student leader and activist - a founder member of the Independent Student Movement - and organised political rallies, delivered speeches and led demonstrations. She had already drawn unwelcome attention from the government for her work as coordinator of a programme at UNICEF for Sudanese women when she and her husband were both imprisoned by the regime on their return from Bangladesh, where they had attended a UNICEF conference.

She was taken to a government "ghost house" and placed in solitary confinement in a tiny, windowless room, where she was interrogated three or four times every day. She was accused of speaking against the government, and questioned at length about the presentations she had made at the conference in Bangladesh. She had no access to sanitation, was deprived of essential medication, wakened whenever she managed to fall asleep and threatened daily with rape. The authorities told her that her children would be kidnapped and her old, sick father detained if she continued her work with the UN.

She was finally released and managed to escape from the country with her three children. She was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK as a refugee in 2000, but other members of her family are still in Sudan and she continues to have nightmares about what might happen to them. She also suffers physically because of the treatment she received, and is unable to walk very far or to sit for any length of time. Because of her long history of human rights activity in Sudan, and her extensive work with various NGOs, she has become involved with development initiatives within her community in the UK, and obtained a place at Birkbeck College, London, to study for her PhD in Management (Development Studies). The Bursaries Fund awarded her two grants, of £2,976 and £2,214, to enable her to undertake this course.

In a thank you letter to us, she said...

"I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the generous grant you have given me to start my research degree at London University. This money will enable me to pay the fees for one year, pay for books, stationery and transport. I feel very enthusiastic now to start my studies and embark on the difficult task of collecting my data and conducting the long-awaited interviews. After seven years of looking for funds, I am finally able to fulfil my dream and feel as someone of value and not a victim any more. I hope that on completion of my work, I will be qualified to work in a field related to alleviating the injustices inflicted upon women worldwide."

As a long-term supporter, you may have a particular area of our work that you would like to fund and we would be happy to accommodate any particular interests you may have.

If you would like to leave a gift to us in your Will, have a look at our suggested wording and more information. Alternatively, if you would like to talk to us about leaving a legacy, please contact the Director, Lynn Carter, who would be happy to give you more details.