Almost a month ago our Merseyside community was devastated by the horrific knife attack in Southport, which saw three young girls murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop, and five more children and two adults seriously injured. 

Firstly and most importantly, we must recognise the heartbreaking loss of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine. Three young girls with hopes, dreams and people that loved them, taken far too soon. As an organisation, we wish to extend our deepest condolences to their friends, families and all those affected by the attack. Our thoughts are with you.

This attack and its aftermath had a profound impact not just in Merseyside, but also across the UK. When the attention should have been on standing in solidarity with the victims, their families and indeed the survivors, the tragedy was instead weaponised and used as an excuse for violence towards ethnic and religious minorities and migrant communities, which escalated in the wake of the attack through hate and disinformation spread online.

As a service run by and providing help to people from a diverse range of backgrounds, ethnicities and religions, it was a frightening and unsettling experience, but we did not allow it to deter us from delivering our clients the help that they needed, particularly at such a time of heightened risk.

To protect both our staff and clients, we pivoted to working from home and online service delivery and instigated immediate check-ins to ensure everyone involved with the organisation and both active and non-active clients were safe, aware of the developing risk and up-to-date on how they could access their usual services. Liaising with police and local authorities, we also circulated reliable information about areas to avoid, dates and location of concern and other safety updates – something we are continuing to do while risk of violence and unrest is still considered high.

While a frightening time for our employees, clients and their families, our resolve has been strengthened by the show of solidarity across our communities. From Savera UK funder Community Foundation for Merseyside rapidly establishing the Southport Strong Together Appeal – an emergency response fund to help these affected by the Southport attack – and faith and community leaders coming together to call for calm, peace and dialogue to overcome tensions, to huge turnouts from anti-racist protesters across the UK demonstrating that hate is not wanted here and protecting religious sites, centres supporting migrants and refugees and other community centres.

We would like to thank all those in our own community who have reached out to Savera UK to check in and offer help at this difficult time, the police and other emergency services who have been on the frontline responding to riots and threats and our own clients, team, the Savera UK Youth, our board and advisory board who have all show great resourcefulness and resilience in ensuring that our service continues to operate.

We believe our communities are stronger and better when we work together to promote love over hate; when we open dialogue to increase understanding and encourage acceptance and when we stand in solidarity to ensure the most vulnerable in our society are protected and given the help they need and deserve – we will continue to work in a way that reflects this, regardless of the challenges we face.

Afrah Qassim

CEO and Founder, Savera UK