In honour of STAR's 25th Birthday, members of the team at Essex STAR will be taking part in the #Jump4STAR Challenge in order to raise awareness for the EqualAccess Campaign 

The challenge is simple!  Essex STAR will be taking on this challenge of 25 STAR jumps (given it is STAR's 25th birthday!) for 10 days to raise awareness for our #EqualAccess campaign.

We all know how integral exercise is to our mental and physical well-being, so it’s more important then ever that we get active in a safe way. We are also all much more isolated then before, so this a great way to connect with your group and others who you haven't been able to see face-to-face in a long time.

THE #EQUALACCESS CAMPAIGN

STAR have been campaigning since 2008 to ensure that people in the UK seeking refugee protection have equal access to higher education and can join us at university as equals. Student activists and Student Unions are in a unique position to affect this change. The Equal Access campaign is being run by STAR in partnership with the National Union of Students (NUS) and is supported by a broad coalition of agencies.

Individuals who are waiting for a decision on their asylum application, or who have been granted Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave to Remain (DLR) in the UK as a result of an asylum claim do not have equal access to university.They must pay the same fees as international students and have no access to student loans and grants. This excludes most from continuing on to higher education. As a student network, STAR believes that this is wrong and that colleges and universities should have fair admissions policies. The #Jump4STAR challenge will raise awareness and funds for this really important work.

In addition, many refugees and asylum seekers find the UK university system difficult to navigate and struggle to get the help they need to do so. Your donation will go towards:

• Funding STAR's work with young people seeking refugee protection to develop their campaigning and activist skills by helping to shape STAR's access to university work.
  
  
• Enabling STAR to continue its work developing life changing scholarships and access pathways to provide higher education to people seeking refugee protection in the UK.
  

Thanks for reading and anything you can donate would be very much appreciated. 

Love from the EssexSTAR team :)