Teaching with Purpose
Every week, I dedicate four to six hours of free tuition to learners who need it most. These are refugees and asylum seekers in the local community of Sheffield in the UK. That commitment comes from years of voluntary work with refugees and asylum seekers — work I'm proud of and that continues to shape how and why I teach. Learn more below about how I have supported these learners and continue to today.
Free lessons delivered so far in 2026:
20
My Partnerships
University of Sanctuary
Sheffield's University of Sanctuary programme supports refugees and asylum seekers in accessing education and community. For several years I provided regular English language sessions for Ukrainian refugees in Sheffield — face-to-face, local, and immediate. Language support at this level isn't just practical. For many people it's the first step towards feeling at home.
Rahela Trust
The Rahela Trust works to improve the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan through education. I project managed the delivery of online English language training to women in Afghanistan via mobile phones — sessions that had to work across unreliable connections, significant cultural differences, and enormous personal risk on the part of the learners. It was some of the most meaningful work I have ever done.
The Council for At-Risk Academics
CARA — the Council for At-Risk Academics — works to protect scholars whose lives and careers have been threatened by conflict and persecution. As a volunteer coordinator for their Syrian programme I set up and managed online English language support to Syrian academics who had fled to Turkey, helping them maintain their professional identities and academic careers in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. For scholars whose entire professional lives had been disrupted by war, language was not a peripheral concern — it was central to everything.
British Council Prelim Project
Working with the British Council as part of their Partnered Remote Language Improvement (Prelim project), I developed and delivered online CPD courses for English language teachers based in Afghanistan. The context was — and remains — extraordinarily challenging. But teacher development work has a multiplying effect that direct teaching cannot match: every teacher you support goes on to affect hundreds of students. It was that logic that made this work so compelling, and why I believe investing in teachers is one of the most powerful things the language teaching profession can do.
Why This Matters
I didn't build this business despite that work. I built it because of it. Fifteen years at a university, working with learners from Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine and beyond, convinced me that access to language is one of the most quietly powerful things one person can offer another. When you book a lesson with me, you're part of something that was already in motion long before this business existed. That's not a marketing line. It's just true.
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