Charities

There are swathes of Old Radleians doing important work for local, national and international charities. From silent auctions and fun runs to founding charitable organisations, we are proud to see that so many Old Radleians are both ingenuous and humble.

Take a look at the Charities section of the Old Radleian 2025 to see what ORs have been up to.

Charity Alliance: Each year RadSoc selects, supports and promotes an OR charity. By doing this, we shine a light on the work of a particular cause, increasing awareness among the Radley community and helping it to deliver its mission. We believe that creating these annual alliances will showcase some of the best work that our community is doing in the charities sector. While we will highlight our chosen charity, we will also continue to promote other fundraising efforts by Old Radleians more broadly.

If you are doing something amazing for a charity you care about, get in touch.

Charity Alliance 2026: Alsama

We are delighted to name Alsama as the Radleian Society Charity Alliance for 2026.

Alsama, co-founded by Richard Verity (1978, C) and his wife Meike, is a high-ambition education charity working in Lebanon’s refugee camps, giving teenage refugees, mainly from Syria, a second chance at a bright future. Founded in 2020, Alsama grew out of a small youth centre begun with 40 determined students in Shatila camp, and has since expanded into multiple full-time education centres that serve nearly 900 young people, with thousands more on waiting lists.

“I want to study Medicine and specialise in surgery. My goal is to become a leading surgeon providing life-saving care. I hope to use my position to inspire young Syrian girls to break gender stereotypes and pursue their ambitions.” – Afraa, Year 5 Student

Many of Alsama’s pupils arrive illiterate or innumerate, with severely interrupted schooling. The organisation’s radical programme compresses 12 years of schooling into six, combining Arabic, English, Mathematics, IT, arts and life skills. Within months of joining, students typically overcome illiteracy and begin real academic progress. Many are ready to join universities in only five to six years.

“I am proud to be the Head of Alsama’s Language School. Alsama taught me to read and write, and now my mission is to teach others.” – Mariam, Head Tutor

What sets Alsama apart is its holistic, student-centred design. Alongside core subjects, education is framed around leadership, critical thinking, yoga, music and cricket. Cricket is deployed not just as sport, but as a way to build teamwork, confidence, and agency in contexts where gender norms and displacement often limit opportunity.

“Education is my passion. My dream is to return to Syria and build schools so I can help these young boys and girls just like Alsama has helped me. But first, I know I must finish my education myself.” – Shahed, Year 3 Student

In times of crisis – whether conflict or power cuts – Alsama adapts. It has developed flexible learning models (in-person, remote, mobile) so students are never left behind. Alsama also aspires to scale its model beyond Lebanon. Its ‘G12++’ certification is being developed to provide young refugees with an internationally recognised, high-school equivalent qualification adapted to displaced settings.

“I want to study Politics and History, and my long-term goal is to help young people across the Middle East understand their rights and the importance of democracy. Being denied an education at a young age lit a fire in me to learn and grow, no matter the obstacles.” – Marwa, Year 5 Student and Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator

By choosing Alsama as our 2026 Charity Alliance, RadSoc is celebrating education as transformation, something familiar to many ORs for whom a Radley education has opened doors; Alsama is changing life trajectories among some of the world’s most underserved young people

A note from Richard Verity, Co-Founder of Alsama:

“There’s no escaping the fact: I’m a Radleian. It’s not just that I spent four of my most formative years at the school. It is also that Radley gave me a formula for education. So, when in 2018 I experienced a mid-life crisis borne from working hard, living prosperously and giving back little, it was to education where I wished to devote my energy. In that year, I had an opportunity to step aside from my career as management consultant and work with Syrians in refugee camps in Lebanon.

What I found there was appalling. An entire generation of children is growing up without schools. They are illiterate. They can’t read or write their names in their own language. It goes without saying that they are also poor – living in tents or slums – and desperate. 41% of girls are forced into early marriage. Boys are pressed into child labour. My wife and I set up Alsama to provide secondary education for Syrian refugee teenagers. We now have four schools in two camps and teach nearly a thousand children.

But this tells only half the story. We didn’t want to create second-rate ‘charity schools’. We aspired to offer a world-class education. Imagine Radley parachuted into a refugee camp but costing not more than 1,000 USD per child.

What would such a school look like? It would have high standards. Our schools have 97% attendance. It would teach well. We eliminate illiteracy in just six months and prepare our students for university in just six years – so twice as fast as the British education system. The school would recognise the value of developing the whole child. Alsama students play competitive team sports at the weekend (cricket actually). They hike, play music and create art. And in one respect we do better than most British schools. Our students have experienced ISIS, war and poverty. They recognise education as a privilege. This gives them a work-ethic that British teenagers rarely match.

It’s an honour to be selected as RadSoc Charity Alliance for 2026. For one year there will be a connection between two different worlds: a refugee camp and a public school. Both sides will discover that they have more in common than they had imagined. I am hoping that, on the Radley side, the relationship will involve boys, masters, parents and ORs. I expect that the institution’s relationship with Alsama students will be as rich and fulfilling as it has been for me.” – Richard Verity (1978, C)

A note from Patrick Derham, former Radley Don and Tutor:

“My life was transformed by educational opportunity. On my last day at Pangbourne, my Headmaster reminded me that I had benefitted from a liberal and liberating education and with that came a responsibility to give back. His final words to me in 1978 were the words of Martin Luther King Jr: “What are you doing for others?” Post-Headship at Westminster, being connected with the Alsama team was a lightbulb moment. Here was an NGO that was transforming the lives of some of the most vulnerable in society by providing a world class education for refugees.

It is a scandal that only 7% of 4.4m refugee children access higher education and so my main involvement is helping with the creation of the G12++, a high school equivalent certificate that is tailor-made for refugees. We hope that what is being tested in Beirut now will in time be an exam for all refugee children across the world. It is humbling to be a small part of this extraordinary project.”

Alsama means sky in Arabic. They create new horizons for young refugees.

Find out more and support Alsama’s work:

Alsama

RadSoc’s previous Charity Alliance partners:

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Music for Autism was co-founded by John Lubbock (1959, E) and his wife Christine Cairns. Inspired by the impact that music had on the life of their autistic son, they bring the transformational power of live music to young people with autism across the UK

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2024 - Kit 4 Kenya

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