York volunteers raise funds to resettle Afghan family in city

Various fundraisers have been held by York Welcomes Refugees including a plant sale

Volunteers are raising thousands of pounds so members of an Afghan refugee family can rebuild their lives in York.

York Welcomes Refugees wants to sponsor a family by providing them with a house as well as covering other costs such as clothes, furniture and food.

More challenges are being run by volunteers this weekend to boost the £7,000 raised towards a goal of £9,000.

Annie Medcalf, from the group, said: "We can't change strategy and policy, but we can at least help one family."

On Sunday, the group aims to complete the final part of a "three-in-one" challenge, which aims to highlight the difficulties refugees face.

Some members of the group have been living on rationed meals, including rice and lentils (pictured), to illustrate what life is like for some refugees

The challenge has so far involved volunteers living on a rationed diet every day, swimming the 21-mile width of the English Channel and sleeping under a canvas outdoors.

Ms Medcalf said: "It's highlighting the journey refugees take across the Channel, the homelessness which affects them when they're here and the limited amount of food they can afford to eat."

The group, a community sponsorship organisation, said it hoped to be able to bring a family to York by spring 2023.

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Ms Medcalf said: "We won't be allocated a family until we have raised the money and found the house, but we are now on the verge after an amazing donation from a gentleman going towards a house."

People in York had been "amazingly generous", she said, especially given the cost of living crisis the country was facing.

"There's this sense of recognising that despite how desperate it is for some people here, there's a lot of people that through no fault of their own, because of war, or the fact they have worked for the British, that their lives are in danger," she added.