for its project ‘Access to asylum and strategic legal aid for displaced people in northern Greece’, which the judges agreed was a “solid application providing legal clinics at five locations as well as telephone hotlines. It’s providing an essential service, doing important work for refugees including support for victims of gender violence.”
for its ‘Little Ripples’ project in the country of Chad, central Africa. The 2026 judging panel said it was heartening to see a project from the troubled, remote difficult-to-reach area of eastern Chad. They particularly liked the fact that the project was refugee-led within the refugee camp community – training the mothers to become teachers – while ensuring the camps were on board.
in the Kyiv region, northern Ukraine, operates the ‘Hope and Healing Center’, providing comprehensive psychological and social assistance to Ukrainian children rescued from Russia and from Russian-occupied territories. The judging panel said it was an “impressive application borne of horrendous circumstances offering psychological support to clearly-disturbed children who have been kidnapped and returned” to Ukraine.
is a refugee-led organisation based in Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Dowa, Malawi founded in 2012. Since 2014, its flagship project, the annual Tumaini Festival has used music, dance, and the arts to promote refugee dignity, inclusion, and self-reliance. The judges singled it out for “an unapologetic celebration of refugees’ talents and contributions” as well as the fact that the festival was started by refugees.”
Camden, London, for its ‘Hopscotch Afghan Refugee Project (HARP)’, which aids Afghan refugees, offering language learning, community building, and confidence workshops was the standout UK project this year. “An amazing initiative,” the judges said because it “promotes a thoughtful and holistic approach to supporting Afghan families – particularly, mothers, the most vulnerable among resettled Afghans.”
Political sociologist Dr Dilar Dirik reflects on her time researching forced migration at the University of Oxford, and asks challenging questions about whether universities should be doing more to acknowledge and confront their links to conflict.
Read more in her article published in Lady Margaret Hall News, her alumni magazine at the university, which is supporting her research at the renowned Refugee Studies Centre.
Read Dr Dirik’s own story . . .
Mission
Ockenden International aims to support the rights of all refugees and displaced people – in any location – to a life of dignity and to help them achieve self-reliance and independence.
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