OUR STORY
Babylon was founded in 2022 by Ali Ghaderi, an Iranian actor, facilitator and refugee.
Ali began working with displaced communities as a child in Iran, volunteering to distribute clothes and food to people who had fled conflict from neighbouring countries. A few years later, Ali became a refugee himself.
Ali arrived in the UK as an asylum seeker as a teenager, forced to navigate the long and complicated asylum system while facing isolation, poor mental health and financial insecurity.
In the UK, he worked and volunteered across the refugee sector, seeing that support was often focused on immediate and practical needs, like housing, legal processes and financial survival.
These were clearly essential, but he noticed there was a gap. Spaces that were creative, relaxed and comfortable to spend time in were rare.
Many people struggle to express themselves, especially across language barriers. For Ali, creativity knew no language - it was the thing he knew how to connect with others over. And in this difficult time, Ali turned towards creative expression to process and understand these difficult experiences.
WHAT WOULD A SAFE AND WELCOMING CREATIVE SPACE LOOK LIKE FOR DISPLACED YOUNG PEOPLE? WHERE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND, WITHOUT YOU HAVING TO EXPLAIN IT? A SPACE THAT PRIORITISES CARE AND CONNECTION?
HOW COULD A SPACE LIKE THIS SUPPORT PEOPLE TO GAIN NEW ARTISTIC SKILLS, BUILD CONFIDENCE AND ENCOURAGE YOUNG PEOPLE TO MAKE DECISIONS?
This is how Babylon Migrants Project began: a creative organisation led by and for people with lived experience of migration.
OUR VISION
Babylon imagines a UK where young people from refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant backgrounds are welcomed, valued and supported to flourish, with access to the creative opportunities and support they need to shape their own futures.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to support young people from refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant backgrounds to build confidence, connect with others and develop new skills. Through our creative and community-building workshops, we provide safe spaces in which displaced young people can thrive.
OUR KEY AIMS
Babylon works to address three core aims:
Many of the young people who join Babylon begin by attending workshops, building confidence and community over time. Some go on to train as volunteers, or take part in our Leap Programme, developing facilitation skills and progressing into paid roles within Babylon or the wider creative sector.
“Participating in Babylon greatly alleviated my stress and provided me with the safe space I had been searching for. It was within this supportive community that I found the encouragement I needed to step outside my comfort zone.”
A, Participant
