Dear friends,

I trust you have had a good start to 2025. At HRF, the publication of our fifth book, The Search for Home among Forced Migrants and Refugees, has seen us travel the world. We have held launches in Rome (Istituto Luigi Sturzo), Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and Bogotá (Universidad de los Andes), with more events planned for later this year. The relevance of this topic is very clear, but so increasingly is the value of our approach: recognising the dignity of the person and central role of the home in this.

While in Rome, we attended ‘Perspectives on altruism: empathy, compassion, care’  on 6-8 March, organised by the University of Santa Croce. As partners in this conference, HRF organised a workshop on ‘The ‘home factor’ between caring for oneself, others, and the environment’ moderated by HRF Director Prof. Julia Prats, with presentations by fellow directors Profs Gamal Abdelmonem and Rosa Lastra. You can read more details and find the abstracts by clicking here. 

We are delighted to let you know of our recent work with the International Federation for Family Development (IFFD), contributing new content for their PAUSE channel, a content platform designed to become the world’s largest hub for family, education, and personal growth. If you are a subscriber to IFFD, you will see several of our directors talking about the home’s impact on the individual’s development from very different perspectives. We shall let you know the release date in due course.

In February, our communications manager, Angela de Miguel, was invited to open a program for parents in Madrid called ‘I have a house, I want a Home’. She was in charge of the first session, ‘Building a Home, a Family Project’. Her key message was “the home does not build itself and requires management and planning, especially when the home is just starting. Later, this management becomes a habit and becomes more natural and assumed by all members of the household. This creates extraordinary bonds of affection and a sense of belonging due to which the children acquire tools and skills appropriate to their age.”

Looking forward to 2025, we have the happy task of preparing to celebrate twenty years of HRF by 2026. We shall update you on our plans for this significant milestone and anniversary in the months ahead.

I would like to end with a personal thank you for your many kind messages of congratulation following the announcement of my knighthood in the New Year Honours List.

Best regards,

Sir Bryan K. Sanderson CBE