Distributing urgently-needed tents in Calais
Today our volunteers in Calais have been truly amazing, handing out tents to deperate people after new mass eviction in Calais left hundreds of refugees without any shelter. French police entered the site this morning, herding crowds of frightened men, women and children onto waiting buses to be driven away to holding centres. Many did not have time to pack their things, meaning they left behind valuable items and documents. The eviction was all the more painful to the people at the site because it came just 24 hours after one of their friends, a young man from Sudan who …
Helping refugees affected by the Sudanese war
Today I learned a heart-breaking lesson about how important our phone charging services are. When we’re giving out food and clothing, we also provide big banks of charging points, and sometimes we give out charging packs too. This afternoon Adil, a 17-year-old refugee, asked to borrow my phone while his was charging. “I will show you a picture of my home,” he said. I thought he just wanted to show me where he was from. In fact he found Facebook and showed me a photograph a ransacked and damaged house. It was his actual home in Sudan. Staring at the …
Meet Pavel and Monir, our farmer-refugees
The Sutton Community Farm in south London is incredibly kind to the refugees we support, donating baskets of delicious fresh fruit and vegetables for us to distribute in hotels. This is great as there is often a shortage of wholesome fresh food provided. Sometimes refugees go down to the farm with Seema, our South West London volunteer, to help carry the baskets of goods. The farm volunteers are so friendly, and at the weekend one of them, Sonia, noticed that Pavel and Monir were interested in the work that was going on. She downed tools to give them a guided …
Refugees abused and attacked in Knowsley
“The gang attacked me when I was out walking in Liverpool with my friend. First they shouted insults, and when we didn’t do anything, they spat on us instead. When we still did nothing, they threw a heavy bike at our backs. “Then we ran for our lives.” “My name is Fadi, and I am 20-year-old Syrian refugee. Until recently, I was living in the Suites Hotel in Knowsley on Merseyside, which was attacked in February. “My ordeal happened a few weeks after that. My friend Abbas and I were walking near some shops when we noticed five men watching …
Refugees to do triathlon for Care4Calais!
Seven of the amazing refugees we support have formed a triathlon team to raise money for one of our community projects. It’s a truly international team, made up of people who mostly didn’t even know each other before they found themselves in the UK. There’s Sofia and Ernesto and their two children, who fled El Salvador to escape gang violence and extortion. Then there’s Adil from Sudan, Joseph from Chad and Arsema from Eritrea, who are all fleeing war, slavery and trafficking. Between them they will swim, cycle and run together at the spectacular Blenheim Palace triathlon on the weekend …
180 coats distributed in Calais
On Saturday we gave out more than 180 of these warm jackets to refugees in Calais, and boy were they badly needed. A lot of the refugees in the queues were newly-arrived in northern France, and dressed in drastically inadequate clothes like t shirts, thin cotton jumps, and bits of light sportswear. Clothing like this is no use against the bitterly cold winds and rain that whip into Calais at this time of year, and you could see many of the guys were freezing. It felt quite sombre compared to usual distributions, because at the request to guys observing Ramadan, …
Surge in anti-refugee activity: new analysis
The Times has published a highly relevant and informative article about the increase in anti-refugee activity in the UK. As the article is behind a paywall the key points are summarised below. Hard-right protesters visited hotels housing asylum seekers 253 times last year amid a surge in anti-migrant activity across the UK, Dame Sara Khan, the government’s commissioner for countering extremism, said a neo-Nazi group behind some of the anti-migrant protests had been allowed to flourish owing to inaction from ministers. The government failed to respond to a warning by Khan and Sir Mark Rowley, now the commissioner of the …
Jenga – Care4Calais style!
Today in Calais I met a rock star. I was playing Jenga with Adil, a Sudanese refugee in his twenties. It was our special Care4Calais version of Jenga, which doubles as a learning English quiz. The questions are things like ‘what’s your favourite colour?’ and ‘who’s your favourite person in the world?’ Multi tasking and having fun. Some of Adil’s replies were so funny. Could he play an instrument? Oh yes, electric guitar – didn’t I know he was a rockstar back in Sudan. Naively at first I thought he was serious, and he roared with laughter. Next – his …
Mastering the Art of the Hijab
When you’re supporting refugees, you learn that if a lady asks if you can get her a hijab, you need to be flexible. Last week I got a request from a woman refugee at a hotel, so I grabbed a few of my own spare ones, plus a selection of scarves. I guessed correctly that people might be shy about asking, but when they saw that we could help with them, several would come forward; by the end I had given out all the ones I took. But I still hadn’t sorted out the lady who first asked. She was …
Our volunteers are helping freezing refugees – can you?
Early this morning I checked the temperature where I live. It was minus six degrees; the streets all around were covered in an icy covering of frost. And yet today in my town, and places all around the country men, women and children refugees will be walking the streets in thin clothes, with Home Office-issue flip-flops on their feet. I know this is true because right now my volunteer group is working round the clock to arrange and sorting distributions of warm clothes for refugees in our area. To see people coming in shivering, their feet clearly chilled to the …
