Emergency Support Resources

At Faithless Hijabi, our core mission is to provide mental health support to ExMuslims facing the challenges of leaving religion. While we do not offer emergency relocation, legal aid, or financial assistance, we recognize the urgent needs many individuals encounter when seeking safety. To help, we have compiled a list of external organizations that specialize in emergency assistance, temporary relocation, and related support services. Please note that we are not directly affiliated with these organizations, and inclusion on this list does not imply endorsement. We encourage you to reach out to them directly to explore the resources that may be available to you.

  • Secular Rescue: Secular Rescue is a program of the Center for Inquiry providing emergency assistance to atheists, secular activists, writers, bloggers, and publishers facing threats due to their nonreligious beliefs or expressions. Support may include relocation, living expenses, and legal help.

  • ProtectDefenders.eu: The EU Human Rights Defenders mechanism provides a 24/7 emergency helpline, rapid-response grants, temporary relocation, and capacity-building support for human rights defenders worldwide at risk of persecution.

  • Scholar Rescue Fund (IIE): The Scholar Rescue Fund offers fellowships to threatened professors, researchers, and public intellectuals, providing safe academic placements for 1–2 years at institutions worldwide. Applications are accepted year-round.

  • Artist Protection Fund (IIE): The Artist Protection Fund supports threatened artists across all fields by offering fellowship grants and placements at host institutions in safe countries where they can continue their creative work.

  • PEN Emergency Fund: The PEN Emergency Fund offers small, one-time humanitarian grants (up to €2,000) to writers facing persecution, helping with urgent needs such as medical expenses, safe relocation, or basic living costs.

  • Urgent Action Fund: Urgent Action Fund provides rapid response grants to women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming human rights defenders facing immediate security threats or unexpected advocacy opportunities worldwide.

  • MADRE: MADRE offers emergency grants for women activists and grassroots organizations under threat, including support for urgent relocation, legal assistance, and protection services.

  • Prisoners of Conscience Fund: The UK-based Prisoners of Conscience Fund offers financial and practical support to persecuted individuals — such as activists, dissidents, and human rights defenders — to help them rebuild their lives and continue their advocacy.

  • Rory Peck Trust:The Rory Peck Trust provides assistance grants to freelance journalists (and their families) facing crises related to their reporting, helping with therapy, legal fees, medical treatment, and emergency living expenses.

  • Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): CPJ’s Journalist Assistance Program offers emergency grants to journalists facing threats, covering urgent needs like medical care, relocation, or legal support. They prioritize individual journalists in crisis.

  • Reporters Without Borders (RSF): RSF provides financial and administrative assistance to professional and citizen-journalists who have been victims of reprisals for their work, including emergency relocation support, legal aid, and material support.

  • Free Press Unlimited (Reporters Respond): Free Press Unlimited offers emergency support to media professionals in danger through its Reporters Respond program, providing assistance with safety, legal aid, and urgent operational costs.

  • DefendDefenders: DefendDefenders works across East Africa to protect and support human rights defenders through emergency interventions, temporary relocations, security training, and ongoing capacity building.

  • Freedom House – Emergency Assistance Program: Provides emergency assistance to human rights defenders globally, including relocation, legal representation, trial monitoring, and financial support.

  • World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT): Offers material assistance and emergency support to human rights defenders at risk, covering medical support, legal aid, physical and digital security, and temporary relocation.

  • Minority Rights Group – Emergency Security Grants: Provides emergency security grants to human rights organizations in Lebanon, Palestine, and Morocco facing digital or physical threats.

  • Scholars at Risk (SAR) – SAR is an international network of higher education institutions that arranges temporary research/teaching positions for scholars facing grave threats. The organization continues to promote academic freedom and protect threatened scholars worldwide. 

  • CARA (Council for At-Risk Academics) –  CARA is a UK-based charity providing refuge and fellowships for academics in danger. Its official site emphasizes it is “a rescue mission for academics around the world who need urgent help to escape from discrimination, persecution, violence or conflict”.

  • York University Centre for Applied Human Rights – Protective Fellowships – The University of York (UK) still offers Protective Fellowships for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Since 2008 they have invited up to 10 activists per year to York for 3–6 months, providing respite, training, research opportunities and well-being support. This Protective Fellowship Scheme is ongoing under York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights.

  • Scholarships for Development (Scholars4Dev) – is an online scholarship database (not a relocation service) that remains updated. The site continues to list “International Undergraduate Scholarships, Master Scholarships, PhD Scholarships for International Students 2025-2026” including a section dedicated to Europe. 

  • SAFE Fellowships (Supporting At-Risk Researchers in Europe) – The EU-funded SAFE project launched in 2024 offers 60 fully funded 2-year fellowships to at-risk doctoral and postdoctoral researchers worldwide.

  • Erasmus+ Grants (EU) –  is the European Union’s education, training, youth and sport programme (2021–2027)​

  • Funding for US Study –  This is an IIE-managed directory of scholarships and grants for international students in the U.S.

  • Scholarships for International Students – EduCanada – The Government of Canada’s EduCanada site has a section for scholarships available to non-Canadians.
  • Chayn: is a global nonprofit that creates open, online resources and services for survivors of gender-based violence, ensuring all content is trauma-informed, intersectional, multilingual, and feminist. Its free toolkits, guides, and digital platforms empower survivors to identify abuse, respond, and heal at their own pace​.

  • Women’s Aid (Safety Planning Guidance): Women’s Aid is the national charity in England working to end domestic abuse against women and children. As a grassroots federation providing life-saving services to survivors​, it offers support, advocacy, and up-to-date safety plan guidance to help women protect themselves and access the support they need.

  • Urgent Action Fund:Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism (UAF) provides rapid-response grants – fast and flexible support – to women, trans, and non-binary activists facing sudden security threats or advocacy opportunities​. By partnering with frontline feminist movements worldwide, UAF helps these human rights defenders protect themselves and one another and sustain their activism for a just, equitable world.

  • MADRE: is an international women’s human rights organization that supports women-led movements worldwide in the pursuit of social justice and human rights. It provides funding for emergency relocation, legal aid, and other urgent assistance to activists and community organizations under threat, helping at-risk human rights defenders find safety and continue their work.
 
 
  • ILGA World: is a global federation of over 1,900 organizations from more than 160 countries advocating for the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people. Their website offers extensive resources, including directories of local organizations and updates on global LGBTI+ rights developments.
  • Rainbow Railroad: helps LGBTQI+ individuals facing persecution due to their sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics relocate to safer countries. They provide emergency travel support, referrals to local partners, and ongoing advocacy for global LGBTQI+ rights.
  • Freedom House – Dignity for All: LGBTI Assistance Program: offers rapid-response emergency funding, security trainings, and technical assistance to LGBTI+ human rights defenders and organizations under threat. It helps activists counter imminent risks, sustain their advocacy, and advance the rights of marginalized communities worldwide.
  • Mosaic MENA: Mosaic MENA is a Lebanon-based organization providing psychological support, legal aid, and advocacy for LGBTI+ individuals across the Middle East and North Africa. They aim to foster inclusive societies by delivering direct services and driving policy change for sexual and gender minorities.