A game with the kind cricketers of Dunkirk
Today I was watching a highly competitive cricket match between Afghan refugees in Dunkirk. It’s getting quite muddy now so I suppose their matches are going to become more difficult, but today they were doing ok. Some of them are really good players. I got talking to a young Afghan refugee called Ali about the T20 Cricket World Cup, which is is being played in Australia at the moment. He explained they were all following Afghanistan’s progress, “because for us, cricket is like football for you. It is everything to us. “That is why it’s good Care4Calais brings the ball, …
Winter coats urgently needed in Calais
When I tell friends and family that I’ve been volunteering in Calais, they always ask me why? They don’t understand. They think refugees just stroll into Calais, and hop into boats to cross the Channel, so what’s the need? Well, let me tell you about the need. There are about 2,000 refugees in northern France, and many of them wait for weeks, months, even years before they can reach safety in the UK. Where do you think all those people live? They live in underpasses, roundabouts, industrial estates and any land they can find. They are constantly being moved …
Fantastic news from Calais!
Fantastic news from Calais! A court in northern France has finally ordered the authorities to lift their ban on distributing food to refugees. These bans have been in place for two years and prevented us from giving food to hungry people in all but a few small areas – areas that kept changing, making our operation very difficult. The court heard that although a La Vie Active single French state-endorsed agency, was allowed to distribute food and drink, in reality it did not distribute enough food for refugees to get three meals a day. And that meant they were going …