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What is THE BIG WALK 2016?

Starting on Sunday 12 June, the Big Walk 2016 will see two teams of 10 alumni, staff and students each walk over 120 miles over six days along the Trans Pennine Trail. Each team will start from a different end of the trail, Southport on the west coast and Hornsea in the east, making their way towards the meeting point of Tankersley on Day Five. On the following final day, Friday 17 June, both teams will be joined by a further One Day Challenge team to walk the final 18 mile stretch of the journey back to the University campus.

Why refugee academics and students?

The world is experiencing the largest movement of people since the Second World War with millions of people fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq, continuing conflicts and instability in Afghanistan, and in countries across Africa and Eastern Europe.  In the mass of people making journeys across forests and oceans, it is hard to pick out individual stories or to seriously imagine ourselves in the same situation. Yet in our University we have a particular reason to hold faith with those who make such a perilous journey; some of our own community had to do just the same.

Think of our Nobel Laureate Hans Krebs who fled fascism and later spent “nineteen happy years” in our University. Think of the author, poet and academic Mbulelo Mzamane who was expelled from Botswana and completed a PhD at Sheffield. He was later described by Nelson Mandela as a “visionary leader and one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals”. Think of our former Students’ Union President Abdi-Aziz Suleiman who left Somalia with his mother when he was three and found refuge in our own city of Sheffield, growing up in Broomhall.

You could also think of a number of other academics and students currently working and studying in the safety of our University, who have arrived here from several different countries, all with their own stories to tell and reasons for having had to flee their homes. The work they do here greatly enhances the research projects they are part of and will benefit communities around the world.

Funds raised by the Big Walk 2016 will support more refugee academics and students like these. We want  to demonstrate our solidarity with refugees and to show that they are welcome at our University and in our city.

How will donations have an impact?

Support will be allocated in two key areas:

- At-risk academics: Through a number of key partnerships with other organisations, the University can host academics who are in danger or exile. Your donations will provide financial and practical support to help them continue their careers until such time as they can return home.

- Refugee students: The University offers fully funded undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for refugees including those seeking asylum in the UK.  Throughout 2016 we will be raising funds to increase this support.

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