Home About Ruth Hayman Trust

Ruth Hayman Trust

The Ruth Hayman Trust gives educational grants for a wide range of courses to support people who have come to settle here and speak English as a second or other language. We help doctors with fees for the exam needed to gain registration in the UK, and we also provide money for security courses and for trainee hairdressers to buy scissors. We fund some students for the higher levels of the IELTS exam, and others for basic ESOL courses. The charity was founded in 1983 by NATECLA in honour of Ruth Hayman, a lawyer exiled from South Africa who started neighbourhood English classes in the UK.


The Trust gives over £50,000 of grants annually. Each award is small - the maximum is for £1000 - but that is often enough to make a crucial difference with fees, equipment or books. The responses we receive from successful applicants confirm how useful our awards are, especially to people who are refugees or seeking asylum. An applicant from Egypt, awarded a grant for Public Service interpreting, wrote:
“….thank you very much. I'm so grateful to you. You are the best organization I have ever met in the UK.”


Our funds come from a variety of sources. We receive donations from individuals and organisations, we hold fundraising events such as concerts and book launches, often involving our active patrons, and people sometimes support us with sponsored events and challenges. Students in ESOL classes organise fundraising events for us, using their English in a cooperative task. We can support their teachers with lesson plans, and the students themselves with certificates to thank them.

Student fundraisers from Lewisham College

The trustees, now fifteen in number, include active and retired practitioners in the teaching and organising of ESOL, as well as people who currently work in business, accountancy, education, pharmacy, therapy and local and central government. The group includes trustees who themselves are refugees or come from communities who speak English as a Second Language. The Trust has no office or staff. All the work of the Trust is done by the volunteer trustees with the result that 98% of funds raised by the Trust go directly to the people who apply for grants.

 

Further information on the Trust’s work can be found here

We are grateful to NATECLA for their continuing support.