Amber, Mark, Angus, Ana & San - forRefugees, Herts for Refugees and Refugee Info Bus in the rare Calais sunshine
The Calais warehouse was buzzing with volunteers and vans when we arrived to this now familiar hub. I was last here in November but the difference this time was the early spring sunshine; rare in Calais! There were meetings happening outside all around the warehouse yard.
The first familiar face was wonderful Ana from the Refugee Info Bus team, quickly followed by James and Isa at Collective Aid, Daniel at Calais Food Collective and Josephine from the Refugee Women’s Centre. Also co-located here are Project Play, Calais Wood Yard and it’s a central meeting point for more. We stayed over lunchtime (planned!!) joining everyone for lunch still brilliantly provided by Refugee Community Kitchen (RCK) now in their 7th year, and which was as fab as we all remembered.
We made a plan for San and I to spend the next day with Collective Aid and for Angus and Mark from Herts for Refugees to spend the day with Calais Food Collective who would benefit from Angus as van driver; something that can sometimes be a struggle amongst predominantly younger volunteers!
By mid-afternoon we headed to Dunkirk as we were staying with Tom and the team at Roots in their new warehouse.
Although we got there too late in the day to be of much use as volunteers, we had such a warm welcome. We met the team and were shown around the warehouse including the showers and IBCs (large water containers) used in camp, admired the new van we’d recently co-funded, and heard plans for what’s next.
ForRefugees supports our local partners in two important ways - with monetary grants from the donations you brilliantly make to us, and with umbrella charity services - flexible to each partners needs at any given time. Like us, all our local partners in France and across Europe are grassroots; running on shoestring budgets and dependent on an ever-rotating team of nominally paid coordinators and unpaid volunteers (we’re entirely unpaid). Each is working hard and working together to fill a humanitarian gap manipulated by our governments hell-bent on hostility - at any price - towards refugees (except those from Ukraine).
The grassroots teams helping refugees are truly heroes to us and it’s a privilege to do what we do to support their work. we know that it's lots of grassroots efforts and voluntary helping hands that are improving the lives of real people, every day, right now. Similarly, our personal visits and volunteer experiences are really important to us to build personal connections and understand how to keep making a difference.
Our unique insights into needs on the ground together with our trusted network of inspiring grassroots partners, almost no overheads and absolutely no bureaucracy, means making a donation to support our work is one of the most impactful ways you can make a difference to refugee lives in Europe today. We are all equal and everyone deserves a helping hand.
