Our mission is to help at-risk women rebuild their lives through practical support, peer guidance, and confidence-building creative workshop
My name is Nikol Dehaan. I was deported back to the UK in 2017 with nothing but the clothes on my back. When I arrived, I was homeless, lost, and traumatised. An organisation provided me with short-term support that helped me survive, but once that support ended, I found myself alone. I felt just as broken and abandoned as I did on the day I arrived.
That experience revealed a painful truth: systems help you restart, but they don’t stick around long enough to rebuild. That gap nearly destroyed me. Instead, it became my purpose. I founded Reestablish Lives CIC with another deportee named Louise Giordano, who has been deported for 3 years now. Reestablish Lives CIC provides support to individuals like us who are rebuilding their lives after deportation, domestic violence, homelessness, addiction recovery, isolation, and mental health challenges.
We step in after the help stops, offering practical essentials, hygiene and household kits, one-to-one peer support, signposting, and confidence-building creative workshops that restore dignity, identity, and hope. This cause isn’t theoretical. We lived it. Your donation helps ensure no one is left alone at the most vulnerable stage of rebuilding their life. Together, we don’t just help people survive. We help them reestablish their lives.
This project successfully funded on 13th October 2026