16:20, 25 January 2021
Words by Smiley Team, Staff Writer, London
For those who flee disaster in their country of origin to establish a life elsewhere, higher education is normally an unattainable dream. To tackle this problem, London-based charity Mosaik Education has collaborated with two artists to create T-shirts and hoodies that will help raise money for refugees to access university.
Artists Lorenz Klingebiel and Vangeli Moscopoulos designed the clothing to provoke thought about who can access education and who can’t. While the front reads “University of,” the back lists places associated with conflict and disaster alongside famous cities notable for their elite universities.
The profits will go to Mosaik, an organisation which provides support to refugees in the Middle East. They offer digital courses and peer-to-peer advice to help with language training, education and well-being support. Young refugees help design the programmes so that they are tailored to the local community.
The garments are environmentally friendly, produced using organic cotton and sustainable energy.
“We are super excited to launch this collaboration with two amazing artists,” said Mosaik founder Ben Webster. “We were incredibly impressed with how they have represented inequality of access experienced by refugees, the aspirations of those we work with, and challenged traditionally held perceptions of who can learn and where. We hope these designs can raise awareness of the barriers refugees face in education - and help raise
money that directly supports refugees in reaching university”.
While 37 per cent of the global population attain a place at a university, only three per cent of refugees reach higher education. This not only restricts their ability to settle into a new community but also limits their ability to tackle problems in their previous country of residence, be that through remittances or skills.
With the help of Mosaik, Amal, a 20-year-old Syrian student living in Lebanon received the Southern New Hampshire University scholarship to go to university.
She said: “University is my biggest dream and most important goal that I try to achieve. My advice to students who are trying to reach higher education is not to give up. We should not give up. We need to keep trying once, twice, even three times. And if an opportunity did not work out there are other opportunities out there, especially for learning online”.
One of the clothing’s designers, Vangeli Moscopoulos, said: “The right to education and the opportunities it brings is something many of us take for granted. Beyond just basic survival, refugees must be afforded this same empowering opportunity. As designers who benefited from higher education, neither of us could imagine a more relevant issue to engage with and promote.”
To purchase a T-shirt or hoody visit the campaign page.
For more information about Mosaik visit their website. You can also support their cause by donating. £15 can train a student mentor, £40 can train a teacher to run workshops for refugees and £45 can fund a place for a student on their support programme.
