Press - Empathy Action

New Refugee Simulation

Empathy Action is currently designing a new refugee simulation for use with schools, businesses, charities, Churches and other community groups.

After many months of research spent travelling to hotspots, meeting and spending time with refugees, conversing with volunteers working in displacement camps and talking to other charities, Empathy Action is now weaving these stories into a new immersive simulation focusing in on the plight of the 65.3 million displaced people around our world.

Our aim, as with all of our simulations programmes, is to engender feelings. Feelings in this case that will deepen understanding and build empathy with those who are displaced. Feelings that will fuel a fresh wave of compassionate action in response to one of “the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time“.

Watch this space and our Facebook & Twitter channels updates.

If you are interested in helping, we’d love to hear from you. We have a range of needs and opportunities for this project and others. Email us on contact@empathyaction.org

Our Pledge at the World Humanitarian Summit

The World Humanitarian Summit took place earlier this week, bringing together around 5,200 participants including heads of state and government, crisis affected communities, NGOs, businesses and UN agencies.

As an official sponsor of the summit, Empathy Action was called upon to say a few words about its goals in supporting the work of the summit. Empathy Action Director, Matt Gurney, laid out the charity’s aims in this pledge:

The World Humanitarian Summit has been described as a “once in a generation opportunity to set in motion an ambitious and far-reaching agenda”. Empathy Action is privileged and excited to be taking part as participants and sponsors. Yet we know that at the end of these three days we will all disperse and in order to sustain momentum there needs to be a movement for change that follows in the footsteps of the 19th century anti-slavery movement in Britain and the 20th century civil rights movement in the United States. But on a global scale.

There are many factors that combine to drive such movements, but a crucial element is always a widespread acknowledgement of the injustice being perpetrated on the victims. This acknowledgement is rarely brought about merely by an acceptance of facts and figures, but by deep-seated compassion generated by empathy. By mentally identifying oneself with and so, fully comprehending a person.

Empathy Action believes that people’s hearts need to be changed in order to bring lasting improvement in the lives of the victims of this humanitarian crisis. To move people beyond the head knowledge imparted by education and the media and enable them to truly empathise with the plight of those facing deprivation, poverty and oppression, far removed from the communities they belong to, often on the other side of the globe.

There is an urgent need to allow the next generation to experience, even fleetingly, what it is like to be a victim of social and economic injustice. Through our work, Empathy Action gives participants the opportunity, albeit symbolically, to step into the shoes of those who battle global deprivation, poverty and oppression. To feel the loss of hope and limitation of choices, the discrimination, the judgement and hatred of others, the desperation. To understand that they are not statistics, labels or problems, but people.

Our ambition is that by taking these steps of understanding and empathy with others, we will help swell the movement for change. Building a community of people with compassion and purpose who will sustain pressure on the Governments of the World to fulfill the pledges they have made here in Istanbul.

Empathy Action pledges to commit all our endeavours to build in the hearts and minds of those we work with greater compassion for those affected by war, poverty, injustice, and the impact of the changing climate. We pledge to steward people’s hearts and exercise our influence to transform our world, build up broken communities and share responsibility for humanity.

We believe that the actions that flow from this will help to bring about the movement for change that we long for and wish to be part of, and that is desperately needed to address the humanitarian crisis blighting our world.

Down and Out in Tunbridge Wells

Visitors to the pristine premises of the Christian Centre in Hanover Road on Saturday were shocked to find it had been transformed into a slum. The event, organised by Churches for Tunbridge Wells (CfTW), highlighted the work being undertaken by 12 local organisations to meet the needs of those struggling with poverty.

The Poverty Trap

Empathy Action’s “Poverty Trap” simulation enabled some 100 people attending CfTW’s Missions Fayre an opportunity to glimpse something of the complex web of circumstances that entrap people in poverty. Although providing only a small taste of the hopes and fears of those who experience extreme poverty as a 24/7 reality, the interactive experience touched deep emotions in a number of those taking part.

Tunbridge Wells charities

We were delighted to meet the people behind a number of great local organisations and charities dedicated to tackling the material poverty and restoring relationships in society, both here in Tunbridge Wells, as well as further afield. These included Chapter 1, The Soup Bowl, WKDA, Housing Justice Night Shelters, West Kent YMCA, World In Need, Youth For Christ, Crisis Recovery, FairTrade and Fegans.

We were also greatly encouraged by the wonderful comments made by nearly 70 of the participants about their experience on the day. Here are just a few…

“Despite working for both local and international ministries to the poor and having a well developed sense of what poverty is I was really surprised by the impact of this experience. What a wonderful, well constructed, immersive experience to help people really connect with the plight of the poor.”

“Quite an afternoon! I came with notebook and pen but what I experienced I’ll not forget. Thank you for an amazing time.”

“Really made me think how easy it is to slip into poverty even in the UK and how difficult to get out.”

“The poverty trap simulation was a very thought provoking and quite intense experience. It was eye-opening to experience how people are bullied and mistreated as they struggle to survive.”

For more information or to book a simulation please get in touch with Empathy Action.

Slums, Students and Stew: The Poverty Trap at Trinity

Sixth-form pupils at Trinity School in Belvedere were thrown into the mayhem of life on the edge as they enacted the hardships and instability of extreme poverty in Empathy Action’s Poverty Trap simulation.

The last day before half term is never the best time for holding a student’s attention but the participants from the Church of England school near Dartford went about the activity with gusto. For forty minutes the 158 teenagers struggled to make ends meet, hurriedly crafting bags out of newspaper to sell to unscrupulous shopkeepers in an effort to pay for the basics and, perhaps, save up enough to send a family member to school.

When the simulation was over the school provided a basic but filling ‘slum lunch’. The cabbage, rice and daal (lentil stew), served in newspaper boat-like bowls, gave an idea of the kind of food that might be eaten, even if the portions were more generous than the average slum dweller might hope to attain.

Following lunch, the school held a Communion service in the slum environment in which students were encouraged to come forward and stick prayers on a wooden cross which had been standing in the middle of the room during the simulation.

In feedback after the event one student said, ‘I am more grateful for what I have and I know that lots of people would want to have what I have.’ Another student said of the simulation, ‘it is an amazing insight into the real conditions that some people are forced to face in their everyday lives.’

Empathy Action frequently run these interative, educational activities, which we call simulations, as a way to raise understanding about poverty and injustice to which most of us find hard to relate, or perhaps are completely unaware. This kinaesthetic learning, as it is sometimes known, provides more than just information. It allows participants to see things from another person’s perspective, increasing their empathy and, we hope, leading them to take action.

Follow the link for simulation booking information.

Calais Jungle In Pictures

Earlier this month, Empathy Action’s Ben Solanky, visited the Calais refugee camp, often referred to as the ‘jungle’. Below is a selection of the images he took. For information on volunteering in Calais please contact Care4Calais.