Who we are
What we stand for
SolidariTee is an international charity and movement striving for empowering, long-term change in the treatment of all those forced to flee their homes. Students and young people are at the heart of our movement, but our team and community includes people of all ages and backgrounds.
Together, as SolidariTee and our partner organisations, we are a combination of student activists, grassroots charity workers, legal aid professionals and mental health experts, standing alongside a thousands-strong community of supporters who share our vision for a world where every person forced to flee persecution and make deadly journeys in search of safety receives holistic, dignified, and lasting support.
Our student community
So far, we've been grateful and fortunate to have worked with more than 2000 student volunteers across 10 countries. Our students organise events, raise awareness, and unite the student community in support of refugees worldwide.
"I joined SolidariTee because I wanted to be a part of changing the injustices facing refugees by supporting NGOs that provide legal long-time solutions. Leading SolidariTee’s NTU team, my highlights were a Christmas bake sale and an awareness online panel event involving NGOs, such as Equal Legal Aid, and refugee advocates."
Yasmin, Nottingham Trent Head Rep 21-22
I've been volunteering for SolidariTee since October 2019, when I started as a Student Representative at Cambridge. I joined the team because I have always been invested in the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers across the globe and saw SolidariTee as a sustainable and effective way to make an impact alongside my studies.
I enjoyed the role so much, especially the sales and fundraising aspect, that I decided to join the Central team as Shop Manager in June 2020 in order to maximise the impact I was having and to ensure that SolidariTee continued to raise money globally and provide legal aid to more and more people. In this role, I was lucky enough to deal with customers on a global scale as well as our worldwide teams and take a front seat in viewing the consequences of SolidariTee's work, while getting to work alongside some amazing and inspiring people!
While I have moved on from being a student, SolidariTee and its success will always be close to my heart.
Kyle, Shop Manager 20-22 & recent graduate, now working in the charity sector
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Video: an introduction to SolidariTee
SolidariTee concept video: March 2021
Our NGO community
We bring together eight of the most impactful grassroots organisations (NGOs or non-governmental organisations) providing support to refugees and other migrants in vulnerable situation. We work in a partnership model, providing vital funding to enable them to carry out their work, as well as offering a platform to share knowledge, ideas, training, and best practices from the humanitarian sector, and hosting bespoke training and professional development opportunities.
Our partner NGOs are operational in Greece, where refugees and ayslum seekers are frequently forced to live in unsuitable refugee camps all year round, which are dangerous to people's mental and physical health. Our partners help by representing people through the asylum process, reuniting families separated across borders, appealing unjust decisions, and advocating for a fairer, more just asylum system. To read more about their work, please visit the link below, or check out our annual reports and 'partner spotlight' posts on social media.
"Everything would be difficult without Fenix’s guidance. It will be like a person who is standing in front of an intersection and doesn’t know which way to go."
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– 26-year-old woman from Afghanistan, and client of Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid. Fenix have been recipients of SolidariTee grant funding since 2019
Photo: Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid team
Our Leadership
CEO
Alexa Netty is SolidariTee's CEO, providing support to the student presidents and wider student team whilst also overseeing our overall trauma-informed legal aid programme and working directly with our partner NGOs.
Alexa works full-time in the humanitarian sector, and has supported with accountability and learning initiatives across responses in Palestine, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere.
Alexa took over the running of SolidariTee more than five years ago, during her undergraduate degree, and remains deeply in awe of the power of collective impact and student movements. Today, she brings her knowledge of humanitarian programme managment, experience of UK charity governance, and expertise in evaluation and learning, to SolidariTee's work with grassroots partner NGOs.
She holds degrees in psychology, neuroscience & behaviour, and in veterinary medicine, and is currently pursuing a part-time Masters in Global Health.
She can be reached with questions or concerns, and welcomes any feedback or ideas, via email at alexa@solidaritee.org.uk.
Student Leadership Team
SolidariTee's president and student leadership team make the entire movement possible, setting the direction of the student movement and co-ordinating across our university teams.
In the 25-26 academic year, Eva Hennell is SolidariTee's student president, alongside Benjamin Self (Volunteers Manager), Tenley Fuentes Lema and Hannah Rand (Events & Partnerships Leads), Beth Hughes (Social Media lead), Hannah Fuchs (Secretary), and Bex Kerr (Networks Coordinator, a graduate role).
They are joined by a central team of 30, and support more than 30 university teams.
Our trustees
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Like all UK charities, SolidariTee has a board of trustees, which provides valuable strategic guidance and governance support to the charity. Our trustee board consists of graduates who have volunteered with SolidariTee's student team during their time at university, as well as those who have worked at NGOs providing support to refugees in Greece, and includes people who have lived and family experience of forced displacement and migration. Together, our trustee board bring expertise across student activism, climate change and climate migration, communications and advocacy, asylum and migration law, and volunteer support and management.
More about us
Founding Story
SolidariTee was started in January 2017. It was born from an initial idea from Tiara Sahar Ataii, a then-first year student at the University of Cambridge, who had volunteered in Greece as a translator. In the early days, a small group of then-students helped to bring SolidariTee to life, and a spirit of collective action has guided us through many evolutions and transitions since then.
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Watch Tiara's TEDx Talk: 'A Sustainable Solution to the Refugee Crisis', co-written by CEO Alexa, for a summary of the reasons we believe that legal aid is the most empowering, long-term form of aid we can offer.
Other Achievements
In 2023, SolidariTee was shortlisted for the Third Sector Awards in the 'Volunteer Team of the Year' category. In the same year, SolidariTee and law firm Osborne Clarke were also announced winners of the legal category for their partnership in the Business Charity Awards.
2019, SolidariTee received a Diana Award, which is presented to exceptional young change-makers who have demonstrated a capacity to mobilise new generations to serve their communities and create long-lasting global change.