Maudie Fraser

Maudie is an independent activist for refugee rights based in London. Her work aims to counter dehumanising narratives and the 'otherisation' of refugees in dominant discourses and to fight punitive and divisive politics.

Maudie graduated from Trinity College Cambridge in 2015, with a BA in Spanish and Portuguese, specialising in Latin American literature and politics. As part of her degree, she spent a year living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

After graduation, Maudie's attention turned to the crisis of forced displacement, specifically of Syrians and others from the Middle East region travelling to Europe via Greece. Having spent several weeks volunteering on the Greek island of Lesvos, which at the time was receiving 60% of Greece's refugee arrivals, Maudie joined a refugee family and travelled with them along the 'Western Balkans route' to Germany, seen as 'just another refugee' by all but the family who took her in.

During the journey, Maudie wrote a diary-style blog , which attracted thousands of views in its first days. This response led Maudie to give several interviews, including one with the BBC, and to write pieces for other publications.

The excellent response to this blog spurred Maudie to pursue activism, in her determination to make positive changes for those suffering and losing hope, particularly in the face of Europe's callous rejection of them. Maudie works largely through writing and giving talks, and has spoken to audiences ranging between a Year 5 class, participants of a tech hackathon, and clients of a private London bank.

Maudie returned to Lesvos as a volunteer for several weeks in December 2015-January 2016 and maintains close links with volunteers working on the ground in different parts of the world where refugees are in need of care and support.

In all her work, Maudie aims to break down negative perceptions, to cause people to question inherited beliefs, to erode prejudices and to disprove the false 'them/us' binary so often used as a distancing technique between fellow human beings.