This winter as bills go up and the cost of heating, food and accommodation spiral, everyone will be effected but international students will feel the impact more than most.

Research shows that only one in five international students receives any form of government benefit and separated from close family and friends, we know the coming months will be especially hard.

Sajjad is from Pakistan. He travelled to the UK without his wife and three young children to study but he struggled to get enough money together to pay his course fees and accommodation costs. Since being in the UK, Sajjad has been supported by Friends International and a local church giving out food parcels. After months of hardship Sajjad has now found a job and has been able to earn enough money so that his family can join him in the UK, but without the support of Friends International and other Christians none of this would have been possible.

Please pray that international students will know God’s ‘shalom’ in their hearts, and also that God will answer their everyday needs and provide for them practically.

Please will you make a donation to support our local link programme and volunteer network, so that international students can receive a warm welcome and hospitality this winter.

Yours in Christ,

Alan Tower, National Director

PS. Your gift will help international students like Ahmed, who recently arrived from Iraq. Each week he takes two buses across town to be at the international café and meet people he can, for the first time, call ‘friends’.