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A huge thank you to Rufus for choosing firefly for his birthday fundraiser and for the donation he made to our partner projects in Bosnia, Syria, Turkey and Gaza.  

We are two months into the CATT (children’s accelerated trauma treatment) Gaza Pilot project and the mid-term report is complete and full of the successes already achieved:  20 children referred and assessed 10 children who have completed CATT treatment 30 care-givers reached through awareness sessions  Challenging PTSD symptoms have been reduced and recovery...

Edinburgh University kindly hosted the award ceremony for our two winners of the inaugural Ellie Maxwell Award, an award given by Ellie’s family to encourage students at Edinburgh developing organisations which promote social change. Sarah Smith welcomed everyone to the University and spoke of the importance of this award in...

An intrepid Firefly supporter, Ian Reed, has completed the Hellespont swim in Istanbul to support Firefly’s work for Syrian refugees and children affected by war. Thank you very much Ian!

Firefly, IMET2000 and ACT international are running a six-month pilot in Gaza treating children suffering from PTSD. ACT International trains counsellors in accelerated trauma therapy (CATT) and the two counsellors in Gaza – Mohammed El Sharef and Haitham Mohammed have been trained by ACT and are receiving ongoing training and...

Our Antakya centre ran a 10-month maths programme for Adolescent Syrian Refugees. They attended intensive workshops on Saturdays and Sundays throughout this period. These pupils attend Turkish schools and all their education has been in Turkish since they arrived here from Syria. Many have missed years of education due to...

Maria Chambers, Projects Coordinator, Antakya June 2019: We would like to thank the Hadrian wall walkers for their energy and enthusiasm raising the funds that have supported these programmes: without their hard work and generosity of their sponsors these children would not have access to these activities. The summer holiday...

Last month an intrepid group of Firefly supporters walked 55 miles of Hadrian’s Wall in three days and raised an incredible £9000 to support our partners Firefly for Syrians and Svitac(Firefly in Bosnia). This enormous donation pays for the summer programmes for hundreds of children and to support our work...

We are delighted to announce that we have TWO winners of the first Ellie Maxwell Award Pauline Libsovar and Maisie Palmer.  Pauline represents Colours Edinburgh who have created a platform Scotland’s newcomers seeking refuge to share their stories through immersive art, research, and digital media.  Maisie co-founded mxogyny a platform which hopes to connect stories from...

This video shows Syrian young people at our centre working with Turkish engineering students on a robot making project.

Congratulations to Svitac (Firefly in Bosnia) for their 20th anniversary. This wonderful film made by a current volunteer, Florian, shows the wonderful work which Svitac does every day to promote tolerance and give young people life-changing opportunities.   

Some images of the mesmerising light display kindly donated by Bruce Munro as part of the celebration of 20 years of Firefly International. The display was held in the Old College Quad from the 25th to the 29th of March.  British artist Bruce Munro is best known for immersive large-scale...

To mark the 20thanniversary of Firefly International Ellie’s family and friends are sponsoring the Ellie Maxwell Award through the University of Edinburgh.  The Award The Ellie Maxwell Award aims to encourage and support an Edinburgh-based student or group of students who have helped promote social change and inclusivity with their project. Ellie Maxwell’s work started...