Help Refuge Worldwide

Over the last few years, we’ve built a space where artists, collectives, people young and old can come together to share music, stories and knowledge, broadcasting live from Neukölln to the world.

Providing 300+ workshops, transmitting over 12,000 radio shows, coordinating 3000 hours of teaching - with the contributions of so many incredible people, Refuge Worldwide has become part of the fabric of this city.

The truth is, we need help to keep this going.

While considering our options and the current climate in Germany, we have decided that we have little choice but to launch a crowdfunder in order to support the station's projects and stay on air.

Berlin is changing, quickly.

Rents are rising, costs increasing, and the political climate has become hostile toward independent spaces, grassroots culture, and organisations that platform diverse and marginalised voices.

Public funding that once supported the arts is being redirected or reduced. Many of our peers are facing closure, and it is harder and harder to operate within Germany.

With shrinking resources we’ve really struggled to keep the station afloat in the last 12 months, have had to reduce opening hours and unfortunately also make staff cuts this year.

While we still have kept busy with many amazing projects, the resources gained mostly just cover the projects themselves, and do not stretch to cover our general running costs and offerings.

Refuge has never been about profit, we are about people, telling stories, creating space, providing opportunities and amplifying voices. We want to continue offering our programming for free, the studio rentals for free, educational opportunities and events without door charge.

But we only survive by the community around us.

By contributing to this crowdfunder, you are supporting more than a radio station, you are helping us to lift up the people around us, you are supporting a platform of resistance and counterculture.

To reduce costs and protect the future of the station, later this year, we are closing our beloved HQ at Oona on Weserstraße and moving the radio and bar to the space at Niemetzstraße.

With your help, we can keep this project going at the new location.

Whether you can drop in 1€, 10€ or more it makes a huge difference to keeping us on air. Please share this crowdfunder as far as you can.

From Neukölln to the World, we aren’t going quietly just yet.

Thank you for the support.