From a train to Edale to the South Downs, the Foundation has supported projects helping refugees and asylum seekers find belonging through the British outdoors.
The British countryside can feel remote and unfamiliar, even to people who have lived here all their lives. For someone who has recently arrived from another country, navigating asylum claims, temporary housing and an unfamiliar language, a day in the hills might seem like the last thing on anyone's list. But over and over again, the projects the Alpkit Foundation has supported tell the same story: getting outside changes things. The landscape doesn't ask where you're from.
The train to Edale
Heather Hunt spent years as a Learning and Discovery Officer for our national parks. She also runs the Sheffield Conversation Club, an easy social space where asylum seekers and refugees improve their English in the company of others. When she wanted to take a group into the hills, the ask was simple: twenty train fares from Sheffield to Edale, and a few ice creams wouldn't go amiss.
The Alpkit Foundation agreed. On the day itself, everyone was early for the train. Fit young men from Sudan and Somalia, an older woman from Eritrea undaunted by her arthritis, families from Syria and Bhutan. Twenty people with packed lunches and their stoutest shoes, heading out to Grindsbrook Clough and a stretch of the Pennine Way.
The group spread out quickly on the ascent. It didn't last long. The faster walkers doubled back to help those behind, and threw the smaller children onto their shoulders. A mountain stream in sunshine worked its usual magic. Within minutes, children were in the water — joined, before long, by a group of English kids who'd had the same idea.
The picnic brought everything together. Curries from Bhutan alongside Syrian flatbread and African rice. The countryside around Edale reminded several people of home — there's something in open hills and clean air that crosses borders more easily than language does. On the train back to Sheffield, this group from very different countries was more or less asleep together.
"Not a lot of money made an enormous difference." — Heather Hunt, Sheffield Conversation Club
Into the hills
Peak District New Beginnings is a project co-created with refugees in the Peak District, backed by Arts Council England and seven partner organisations. Mir Jansen, who runs it, wanted to organise a series of walks in nature reserves and across the national park — but knew that getting people properly kitted out was the first step.
Eleven participants met at Alpkit Hathersage to look through donated outdoor clothing from the Continuum project: walking boots, waterproof coats, jackets and trousers. They then set off through Hathersage to try everything out. For many, this was the first time they'd owned gear suited to the British hills.
Voluntary Action Sheffield has been central to the project. Winnie Lutakome, Participation Co-ordinator for their New Beginnings programme, explained what it meant to bring people to the walks.
"We facilitate the engagement of refugees in nature for personal well-being, and for some to develop skills and leadership qualities that can lead to employment, particularly in the environment sector. Being able to provide more suitable outdoor clothing will make a massive difference for them. It will certainly enable them to get out into nature even more."
When asked what they enjoyed most, participants described reaching the top of the hills, meeting new people, learning skills, and the experience of interacting with nature. Off the back of the walk, plans were already forming for more. New locations, new trails.
On two wheels
Freedom of movement matters when everything else is uncertain. Bikes for Refugees (Scotland) distributes free bikes and welcome packs — helmet, lock, lights, and information about community services — to New Scots: refugees and asylum seekers making their home in Edinburgh. To date they have passed on more than 1,200 free bikes, each one enabling the person who receives it to move around the city on their own terms.
The Alpkit Foundation supported their welcome packs, helping ensure that each bike comes with everything the rider needs to use it safely and confidently.
Heading for the sea
Every June, Croydon Voluntary Action marks Refugee Week with events across the borough. In 2022, the theme was healing. Christine, who co-ordinates the programme, applied to the Alpkit Foundation for support towards a day outdoors — somewhere further than the parks and streets participants already knew.
Most of the group had been living in hotels and hostels in Croydon since arriving in the UK. They hadn't had a chance to travel outside the borough. They told the team they wanted to see the countryside and, if possible, the sea.
The Foundation helped cover the cost of a coach to collect people from five hotels and hostels and take them to the South Downs. First they walked across part of the national park, then south to Brighton, where the group paddled at the water's edge, ate lunch and made lasting friendships.
"We then arrived at Brighton Beach, where the group enjoyed paddling at the seaside, eating lunch and making lasting friendships and positive memories and starting the healing process."
The Alpkit Foundation supports grassroots projects getting people outdoors and into wild places across the UK. If you run a project doing this kind of work, find out how to apply.