I’ve spent three days in Calais doing some work at a warehouse shared by several organisations who support refugees there and in Dunkirk.
It’s a cliché that the world is full of bad news. There is so much going so wrong in such quantity it is difficult to know how to respond. We often get stung into despondent paralysis: the mountain of the world’s problems is impenetrably wide and high so we gaze at it with folded arms and glazed eyes. My very short time in Calais showed me some incredibly practical and humane responses to this overwhelming tragedy.
Since the clearance of the Calais ‘Jungle’ in 2016, the situation has largely faded from UK headlines. This is not because there are no longer refugees in and around Calais. Currently, the CRS (French Riot Police) are doing clearances of the camp areas on more than a weekly basis. Tents are forcibly removed or pepper sprayed. The CRS use incredibly violent tactics to make Calais as inhospitable a place as possible for the refugees. Recently there has been a renewed focus on also harassing and even arresting volunteers who are distributing food or supplies.
These people have been displaced from their homes in usually highly traumatic circumstances and are now being treated to state-sponsored harassment and assault. It’s also important to know that the UK government sends millions to France to support these tactics.
In response to this, however, several charity/humanitarian organisations are doing amazing work to support the diverse needs of the refugees in Calais and Dunkirk. The majority of these organisations share a warehouse which is a hive of sincerely effective positivity.
Whilst I was there I spent most of my time working in the industrial kitchen onsite with Refugee Community Kitchen. It produces 1,200 hot, nutritious and delicious meals every day for refugees. The kitchen is huge and amazingly efficient.
Like the rest of the warehouse it is managed and co-ordinated by a team of long-term volunteers. They all have an incredible level of knowledge and professionalism. My friend Maddie is one of these volunteers which is where I first found out about the warehouse. She writes some excellent poetry (often about Calais) which you can read at her Instagram @mlsartivist.
The situation in Calais is not good but you can contribute to helping those in need. I would highly recommend going out and giving some of your time at the warehouse: its a place that is full of great people doing great work.
You can also donate financially.
£1 to Refugee Community Kitchen will provide two hot meals: https://mydonate.bt.com/donation/v4/chooseAmount.html?charity=147727&sourcePage=charityPage
Help Refugees is the an organisation which coordinates a lot of the work in the warehouse: https://donate.helprefugees.org/campaigns/northern-france/
Physical donations of particularly tents, sleeping bags, and men’s clothing are also particularly needed. When I was there the warehouse was running very low. You can find out more about that here: https://helprefugees.org/donate-goods/
If you’re interested in learning more there’s a super informative podcast special by the Guilty Feminist which you can find here: http://guiltyfeminist.libsyn.com/calais-refugee-special
I was really inspired by the work I saw being done and am quite sad to leave Calais. I know that I’ll be back in the future so maybe see you there.
Thanks for reading.
[and a special shout out the cute-cumbers at the coriander table]
Also, a note: due to the scarcity of WiFi it’s taking me a little while to catch up with blog posts. I am currently in an Abbey in Wisques (four days of walking). Another couple of posts are in the pipeline though – stay tuned.