Belong is a refugee community organization originally for African refugees by African refugees, it has now expanded to support refugees from more backgrounds from South America to East Asia. Their goal is to empower refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to achieve their full potential.
They offer a wide range of services to help refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants from employability assistance, education, youth integration support, health care access support, and housing assistance.
Belong offers many ways to support people moving to the UK for whatever reason. There are a range of ESOL classes for people, these courses range from pre entry level to henry level 3 courses and are held both during the day and at night for those who would struggle to attend during the day as well as holding women only classes.
Among other things Belong helps people with employability and well-fare as well, assisting people with applying for a national security number, writing CVs and cover letters, finding work experience, as well as helping to apply for benefits, finding schools, and applying for housing.
The biggest project Belong seems to be doing at the moment is the Heritage Project which is based on David Livingstone’s story with a particular focus on his three African colleagues who travelled to Nottingham in 1874 after Livingstone’s death in 1873. All three colleagues were freed slaves, one of which, Chumah, was said to have been freed by Livingstone’s own hands. Livingstone was a massive anti-slavery campaigner and his death helped bring an end to the East African slave trade. The Heritage Project delves into the lives of Abdullah Susui, James Chumah, and Jacob Wainwright, and what they saw and did before, during, and after their time with Livingstone and the effects their travels had on African societies.