I've raised £2024 to help Junior and Tabby raise money to register as British citizens. It will change their lives. Help raise £2024 to get them there!
Organised by Phelisa Isakongo
Story
My name is Junior.
My hobbies are football, playing games and above all, listening to and playing music. I play guitar and piano. I’ve been playing piano since I was 7 and guitar from 12. I like to play classical music on the piano and pop songs on the guitar. I am currently in college studying Lvl 3 IT and hope to continue doing IT in the future. I have 3 younger sisters and a half-brother who is 4 years older than me.
My mother fled South Africa before I was born and came to the UK. When I was 9, we were recognised as refugees. Although I have Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, I don’t have a passport. South Africa won’t recognise me as a citizen and I’m not technically British. My two youngest sisters are British because they were born after my mother was recognised as a refugee. The immigration rules say that because I was already born when my mother became a refugee, I’m not British. Yet I was born in the UK and I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve never left the country.
My name is Tabby.
Hello, I am 9 and one of my hobbies is playing football as well. My brother taught me football when I was 2 and I've been playing ever since. I play for a local London team called East London little ladies. I hope to be a professional Women's Footballer when I grow up.
We both have a right to register as British citizens, but the application fee is £1012 each. Our family doesn’t have that kind of money. There is no fee waiver even though we can’t afford to pay. I would love to see my grandma in Africa because I see her in pictures but it would be amazing to see her in real life. Please help, I would appreciate it so much. Thank you.
Getting British citizenship would mean the world for us because we have lived all our lives in this country, dreaming of the outside world, wondering what our family are doing and if we will ever be able to see them. We've talked to them on the phone, video chat and have adored the sight of them but the problem is, we're not with them. We're not talking face to face, spending time with them, we're thousands of miles away from them and we have been all our lives. Our Grandma is 81 and we have been wanting to see her for as we can remember. She had a lot of brother's and sister's but for the last 10 years, her siblings have been passing away one by one over the years and at this moment, she is the last one. We fear that if we don’t see her now, we never will.
I (Junior) first knew that my situation was a problem when I was around 13. I had asked my mum about my family in Africa and she had told me all about them. However, when I asked if I could go and see them, she told me that it wouldn’t be possible because I didn’t have citizenship. Of course, that confused me and I found it unfair that later on, my mum travelled to Africa and I couldn’t. That left me angry of the fact that my own country, where I am born and raised, wouldn’t even give me a citizenship and grant me the chance to go and see my family.
This is why we need your help, it would change our lives to see our family in Africa. We have only dreamt of seeing them, to make it a reality would be all we could ever ask. Quite frankly, we don’t know how long it’ll be before my grandma’s time on this earth is up and it’s too late for us to see her. We don’t want that to be the case, so you would be doing us a huge favour by donating some money for us to live our life long dream.
