Packs4Calais help refugees in Caen
This week our volunteers went to Caen to visit the refugees that stay there and in the nearby port town of Ouistraham. In Ouistreham there is a local collective that provide meals, but it is a small organisation without the resources to provide much else.
Luckily, due to our #Packs4Calais campaign we had nearly 200 well made packs that we took with us. These were something to see. Full of essential items including fresh underwear, toiletries, food, basic clothes, torches and all sorts of special extras. The best bit was some of the notes people had put in to lift the refugees spirits. Each and every pack represents someone in the UK who has put thought, love and care into making something to help someone else, someone they have never even met. It really was an honour to give them out.
It was also particularly good to take these packs to Caen: the refugees there have nothing. There are no associations to help them and most come from third world counties and are very poor. We were glad we saved the packs up for this trip, now that donations are so low in the warehouse.
On Monday night we distributed in Ouistreham after the local collective finished serving dinner. We gave out the packs and sleeping bags, then handed out all of the shoes we had available. Unfortunately, we had to turn away many people who needed shoes. On Tuesday, in Caen, we visited a squat where 200 refugees of different nationalities reside and maintain the premises. Young children played in the yard or participated in activities organised by local schoolteachers. Six other squats, of smaller sizes, currently exist around Caen, but they are under legal pressure from the French government. In a recent case, the collective won the right to continue operating for one year.
To help our work continue please donate at https://goo.gl/jmkx7A
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