As we leave 2023 behind us and look to the year ahead, I want to say a huge thank you to all our staff, partner law firms and in-house legal teams, and volunteer pro bono lawyers. Together, we achieved so much in the past year – we worked on a total of 776 cases of undocumented children, and taken on 362 new cases – and we begin 2024 ready to face the challenges ahead.
We’re good at what we do – our success rate is 99%. This is down to our strong partnerships, to the expertise of our staff, and the commitment, skills and hard work of our partners.
But those cases and successes are not just numbers, they are our clients. They are children who can now grow up with all the benefits of secure status in the country they call home. They are teenagers approaching adulthood who are now able to work, study and take full advantage of the benefits that British citizenship brings. They are families who will no longer face the risk of being torn apart.
Last year we also expanded our work to provide free legal support to children and young people fleeing the war in Ukraine, prioritising assistance for unaccompanied children. This part of our work is ongoing and still in its early stages, but we’ve taken on 17 cases so far and had a number of successes already. More to come in the year ahead.
At this time of year our thoughts are with all the undocumented children and families going into an uncertain year, and our attention turns to the challenges ahead. Going into 2024, we know that the KIND UK project is strong position to continue our work and face those challenges head on.
I also want to reflect and highlight the work of our sister organisations, KIND in the US and KIND Europe, along with the thousands of other organisations, charities and individuals who help to advance and protect the rights of children and migrants around the world, in a time when millions of people worldwide face uncertainty about where they will live and settle. Together, we hope to build a world where every child has a place they can call home, and in which they can become an adult who will never be at risk of being uprooted.
We could not do this work without the generosity and kindness of everyone who supports us. From all of us, and from me personally, thank you.
I leave you with the inspiring words of Elena1, one of our Ukrainian clients:
“To anyone fleeing Ukraine and coming to the UK, I say do not to give up because Ukrainians never give up. Knock on a door for help and you will find someone who will help you. This is how we found KIND UK. The world is not without kind people who will do their best to help you.”
Elena
- Names have been changed to protect the privacy of our clients ↩︎
