Covid in Calais: 19-year-old volunteer Tia speaks to HuffPost

At just 19, Tia is a veteran of our frontline work in Calais.

On the first day of Refugee Week, we couldn’t be prouder of the people who’ve volunteered with us over the years and especially those who have done such an amazing job during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to you all.

Click here to read the powerful and moving first-hand account of Tia’s time working here under Covid 19, written for the Huffington Post today.

In February, I came back again, this time for a few months. Or so I thought. A month after my arrival, the coronavirus pandemic meant I found myself locked into this small town where two worlds so strangely coexist. Where we had been the ones trying to treat those in the camps like the fellow humans they are, suddenly we have to keep our distance and wear masks to conceal our friendly smiles. Providing aid became the only way to show we still cared.

Where other NGOs had dropped out, we tried to fill in the gaps. We turned our attention to food, until people could no longer wear the same clothes they had been wearing for a month. When people weren’t hungry, they were itchy, and try as we might there was only so much we could do. Across five sites in Calais and Dunkirk, we have been distributing both clothes and food on a minimum of a weekly basis, in full PPE and operating under protective measures.