Support our emergency appeal for tents for refugees

An Afghan mum and dad, and their two primary-school-age sons were sheltering here because the police had taken away their good tent. They’d snatched during a mass eviction in Dunkirk, the dad, Rafi, told me. The boys had been so scared. Now he really needed to find them some proper shelter because – he glanced at his wife, and his children playing in the mud, his eyes filled up, and for a moment he couldn’t speak.

He didn’t need to.

The tragic truth is that for the last few days in northern France, countless families have been suffering like this. Last week a huge eviction deprived hundreds of people of their shelters and possessions. We replaced many tents and sleeping bags but then, sooner than usual, came more evictions. And after giving out more replacements, we are now dangerously low on supplies. You can see from the picture of selves in our warehouse how critical the situation is.

This is a crisis, and we can fix it only with your help.

Many of you have already responded to our first calls with incredible kindness and generosity. Donations are being made, and tents are being taken to collection points across the country. Every penny received, and every tent donated makes a difference, and rest assured that our amazing volunteers will work tirelessly to get these tents out. We found a tent for Rafi’s family, and they will sleep warm and dry tonight because of the efforts of our supporters and volunteers.

But we need more, because there are still so many desperate people here, and refugees are still having their tents taken.

Together we can all do this. But we need to act. Please, please, please help if you can.

Just £14 will buy a tent, and £7 will buy a sleeping bag: care4calais.org/donate-now/#donate

And with summer almost here, we know many of you will be buying tents to take to festivals. You can donate these once you’ve used them – just get in touch with one of our collection points around the country: care4calais.org/thedropoffmap/