Media coverage of the on-going refugee crisis may be diminishing, but the reality is that it remains very much with us and, with the onset of winter, could be about to get much worse.

With many in north London, and beyond, coming together to help refugees and asylum seekers for Mitzvah Day – the UK’s biggest faith-based day of social action – on November 22, now is a good time to remind ourselves of some of the background.

The biggest driver of this crisis, the civil war in Syria, is now in its fourth year. More than 11 million people have become displaced, including 4 million refugees. More than 250,000 people have been killed.

But statistics can conceal the human reality behind the numbers. It took the death of one little boy, Alan Kurdi, to change our perception and hence our attitude towards this crisis - which many are calling the worst since the Second World War.

As a result, a number of things have happened. The biggest change is that the UK government has agreed to take up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over a period of five years from refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, prioritising women and children and the most vulnerable.

But what can ordinary people do? If you’re reading this and keen to help, how can you act?

One of the main difficulties in answering this is that, to date, none of the expected 20,000 Syrian refugees have actually arrived in Britain. The latest report says that 1,000 will arrive by Christmas. Barnet Council has agreed in principle to house 50 families, though at this stage have not detailed any concrete plans.

But, even the absence of new refugees arriving in Britain, there are plenty of things which people can do.

Mitzvah Day and JCORE (The Jewish Council for Racial Equality) are two organisations involved in supporting refugees. Mitzvah Day through facilitating huge collections of vital necessities for asylum seekers and refugees and JCORE through campaigning and awareness-raising.

Firstly with regard to the immediate crisis, people can refer to the website www.supportrefugees.org.uk to find out how they can assist refugees in places like Greece and Turkey, as well as closer to home in Calais. They can write to their MPs to ask specific questions on how the government proposes to resettle people.