Euro 2020 – replayed by refugees

All the volunteers were buzzing when they got to the warehouse yesterday, feeling really excited about watching the final of Euro 2020. After a quick, enthusiastic conversion our team decided to make it an extra special day during distribution and services.

We started off by making lots of hand-made England and Italy flags. Then in the afternoon, as well as our usual hairdressing, bike fixing, sewing, hot drinks and games, we took cans of coke, chocolate cakes and handmade England/Italy flags to the site. 

The refugees were really pleased to see all this, and loved the things we brought, pouring each other cups of cola and joking over which flags they preferred.

The best part of the day was the football match. We marked out a pitch, set up goals, and straight away the refugees organised themselves into teams, grabbed the bibs we brought out, and kicked off! 

We played for over an hour, volunteers and refugees together, teams swapping in and out throughout.

One of the refugees came up to a few of us as we were leaving and thanked us for the afternoon. His smile was huge and we could see how much fun he’d had. 

The way members of the England team have conducted themselves at Euro 2020 has massively inspired a lot of us, showing how football can really bring people together. At a time when politicians have shirked their responsibilities and spread division and spite, that group of players have shown proper leadership and backbone. 

They’ve also shown a belief in the power of people uniting regardless of background, and that was as evident on our little patch of France yesterday as it was at Wembley stadium.

After seeing how much this was loved and the requests for more, we’ll be organising more football days like this regularly in the future! 

• Connie, Care4Calais volunteer, Calais