In 2021, players started supporting our programme to protect displaced women and girls in Eastern Sudan, who face a range of humanitarian and protection issues on their often long and dangerous journeys.

Closer to home in 2017, funds were used to support Surviving to Thriving, which helped young refugees and asylum seekers rebuild their lives in the UK.

Supporting people impacted by the changing climate in sub-Saharan Africa

The changing climate means we urgently need to change how we do things – for example, the way people earn an income, grow food, or access weather information. 

This is one of the key reasons why since April 2022  we have been investing player funds into climate related projects across sub-Saharan Africa. 

Across the continent, periods of drought and flash flooding are becoming more likely, intense, and unpredictable with all sorts of impacts but most notably for food security. In response, Red Cross teams are supporting people in a range of places with the new tools and skills needed to cope. 

This might be training people up in alternative fields of work, or giving cash grants for them to buy food for today and then invest in new ways to earn money. It might even look like financial training. This includes sharing information about how to organise and grow savings in communities that might not, for example, have access to banks. 

We are also sharing new farming techniques and drought-resistant seeds, and helping farmers link up with local markets without any middlemen, so they have a reliable place to sell their produce.

These initiatives are all life saving. They not only help people avoid hunger and malnutrition so they can survive today but also help them face the future with hope and dignity. 

Responding to complex emergencies in the Middle East and North Africa

Player funding is directly helping thousands of men, women and children living in Lebanon, Libya, Yemen and Syria right now.  For example, in Lebanon players are helping to provide vital cash assistance to Syrian refugees and their supporting host communities.

In Syria players are helping women and girls supported by our protection project, where teams deliver trainings and community support on trafficking and sexual and gender based violence. This includes helping women and girls know where they can go to for support , and how their communities can reduce the dangers they face in the future.