Eid Mubarak: Calais volunteers unite to plan something special
This weekend we wanted to do something special in Calais. Many of the refugees are celebrating the end of Ramadan – and the camp is not a great place to celebrate anything, especially under Covid. So we had a think about what we could do.
We distributed their most prized item: new trainers. This took a fair bit of planning, but thanks to legwork by Simon Bragman and some generous donations we secured an amazing 300 brand-new pairs, and supplemented these with powerbanks and headphones.
We also made up little gift packs of fizzy drinks, sweets, socks, miswak sticks, SIM cards and face masks. It was amazing to see how well these small things went down. As the volunteers walked down the line handing them out and wishing people ‘Eid Mubarak,’ big smiles broke out and many ‘thank yous’ could be heard.
As it’s been so long since shoes have been distributed, we have seen some of the worst ripped and battered footwear ever. New shoes have never been more needed. It was such a great feeling to be able to give them to everyone who needed them. The one exception was a tall man who was size 46.5. We didn’t have anything this big, but miraculously, one volunteer returned to the warehouse and found shoes to fit him. So a 100% satisfaction rate was achieved.
Massive thanks to everyone who has donated and enabled us to achieve this incredible result today. We are now saving up to do shoes in Dunkirk and Brussels. A new pair of trainers costs £15. If you can help, please click here.
Thank you so much.
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