What if one donation could enable 30 grassroots organisations to reach countless people across borders?

We are a coalition of humanitarians rising together to meet the needs of our community, keep vital services open and affirm the humanity of those receiving and delivering support.

Your donation ensures that civil society and grassroots organising across borders are kept alive and thriving to counter escalating hostility across Europe today.

“The work you do is like a hospital that heals people. Here there is no discrimination, no racism, everyone respects each other. We advise and help each other. Our problems are taken seriously, and we work to make the world a better place and to move forward.”

- Abbas Mimche from Cameroon discussing the work of Makerspace Lesvos

What is this campaign about?

Global crises, shifting media attention, increasingly hostile politics, this is the perfect storm waiting to harm anyone coming into contact with our borders.

Across Europe, displaced communities and civil society support networks urgently need help. Humanitarian workers are increasingly criminalised and limited, forced to operate in a shrinking response space with effectively no state or international support. Brutality towards people who reach Europe’s borders is on the rise. Our partners report supporting people who have experienced violent ‘pushbacks’, and whose only avenue to access vital services and assistance is through non-governmental organisations (NGOs). And those very same organisations are being forced to close when they are needed most, due to a lack of funds, at a scale we have not seen in the last 10 years.

As media attention and public awareness has fallen, so too has the funding available for lifesaving services reaching people on the move seeking safety. Small organisations are forced to try to do everything, pitted against each other in applications for funding and often far too small for most people who want to support movements like theirs to have heard of them.

We believe in a response that is united in its intent, loud in its refusal to accept injustice, defiant in the face of shrinking space and rising repression, and abundant in spirit even when resources are scarce. We are not a campaign of scarcity. We are a campaign of conviction. We do not ask for help timidly or apologetically. We ask with one voice as members of an ecosystem of civil efforts that has held the line for years, quietly, without demand for recognition or exclusivity. We ask because we know what is possible when solidarity is not just spoken, but shared.

We must acknowledge how our resistance against harmful systems in our backyard exist in many forms across the world. The very systems we experience that underfund vital support, criminalise movement, and obstruct justice are the same ones that uphold apartheid and genocide globally. The entangled collection of structures that enable mass displacement, state violence, and economic strangulation are the exact systems that continue to create violence across Palestine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Myanmar, Burkina Faso, Lebanon, Haiti, Mali, Somalia, and beyond. None of these crises are disconnected. Each are the result of a widespread and ingrained system that devalues certain lives, fortifies borders against specific groups, and criminalises solidarity.

For this reason none of these struggles can be treated as isolated, they are interconnected, and our effort must reflect that awareness.

The resistance also has a newsletter.

Determination to Stand Together is Political

From the start, the goal of this initiative is so much more than fundraising. It is vital that we take a stand against the tide of hate and intolerance currently facing us. Now more than ever, shared commitment is needed, to solidarity over separation, dignity over dispossession.

It’s also a demonstrated commitment to the power of flexible, localised funding provided directly to community-based organisations, without the bureaucracy and administrative gymnastics that shuts so many of the most impactful groups out from accessing traditional ‘donor’ funding. It’s a show of the power of collective action and of what’s possible when communities unite.

Together, our partner organisations are able to respond in border areas where needs are greatest. Together, we deliver holistic assistance: from diapers to dignity kits, and from legal aid to language classes, we meet people where they are, promoting dignity, agency, and freedom from persecution and violence.

If you want to enable our partners to sustain and scale up their work at this vital moment in the history of migration and displacement, please consider supporting us in any way you can. If you’re able, please make a donation today, and help us share this message with your network.

This is Where We Rise. Will you rise with us?

Thank you.

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All funds are collected and disbursed by a designated campaign coordination working group, overseen by a central coordination unit operating according to an agreed financial oversight structure and Memorandum of Understanding. The campaign adheres to nonprofit fundraising laws in the countries where it operates, including donor protection, anti-fraud, and financial reporting obligations. An internal review process, including financial reconciliation and optional third-party auditing will ensure transparent and accountable use of all donated funds.

Donors should note that certain participant organisations have chosen to opt out of taking a share of the final amount raised and are participating for the exclusive purpose of promoting and ensuring support for the other participant organisations.

Questions about governance, donation processing or fund use can be directed to wherewerise.campaign@collectiveaidngo.org.

Press queries and advocacy communications can be directed to wherewerise.press@collectiveaidngo.org.