The charity was originally established in 1996 to alleviate poverty in the Horn of Africa which includes Ethiopia and Sudan. However, realizing that poverty was at our door steps here in the Diaspora, it was restructured in November 2004 as Wheat Mentor Support Trust to include UK-based mentoring and befriending programmes for refugee and migrant communities in the United Kingdom. It was set up to provide assistance to vulnerable individuals (children and adults) to manage their lives by developing their skills and self confidence through one-to-one befriending/mentoring support.

WHEAT MST also assists other agencies who support vulnerable people to set up their own befriending/mentoring schemes by providing consultancy and training services. A group of in-house trained mentors had the foresight to identify an area which had not been covered, the mentoring of refugee and migrant children to help them integrate with others through art, dance, sports and other activities. The aim of this project was to support refugee and migrant children by improving their physical & mental wellbeing, social skills and their successful integration into the community and become good citizens.

WHEAT MST Projects
• one-to-one mentor support including mentor training to refugees. migrants and UK citizens with Welfare, Health, Employment, Access to further/higher education and Training needs (WHEAT needs).
• volunteering opportunities in Admin Support, IT, Finance, Database, Children’s Activities and other fields to enhance volunteers’ employability.
• sport, dance, arts, gardening and other activities to refugee and migrant children aged 3-15 years and young people aged 16-19 years. We also offer smart shopping and healthy eating workshops for mums and dads.
• advice and advocacy service through social work students placement scheme.
• assistance to other agencies in setting up their own mentoring project.
• providing event planning courses as well as organising events and trips.