Refugee Community Centre

I’ve been working as a self funded volunteer since the 1st December. I was working in Calais with Utopia56 and Help Refugees, where I helped in distributing clothes, tents, blankets/sleeping bags (etc.), hygiene products and food for 3 months to various points in Calais.

I have spent the last few months working in Ventimiglia (at the French - Italian border). During this time I helped friend who runs a project called SolidariTea (https://facebook.com/refugeesolidaritea). Six days per week we made tea and gave fruit, croissants and biscuits to around 250 people living under a bridge. In the evenings we distributed milky chai alongside dinner. I’ve also been running activities (mainly football) during the day and showing football and films at night on a big cinema screen.

I’m aiming to raise money to allow me to keep doing this, but to also expand my possibilities. I own a van, and hope to buy an large awning (£600) allowing me to create a mobile community centre, with fold out benches, WiFi, games... pool (€70), football table (€40), chess (€5x3), arts & crafts (€40), musical instruments (I’ll hopefully find a donor) and a 'Barbers' freeshop (€110).  Other costs are fuel for the generator and van, new goals and a new generator (both are now completely battered) and footballs (we seem to get through them!)

I've always been passionate about football, kicking a ball as soon as I could walk and supporting, often to dispair, Torquay United FC. During my time here, I’ve seen how important it is to create activities to keep people occupied, and offer them a small escape from the squalid conditions in which they live. Boredom and neglect further the depreciation of huge mental health problems that people are suffering from, and I know support and stimulation can help stop this. The community centre aims to provide this, and hopefully forge a sense of solidarity, offering people some support who otherwise wouldn’t have it. After running the football project I have seen how playing, and watching with people, can create a friendship and offer encouragement and relief, it’s a different form of communication when conversation is difficult. The mutual love of football brings together people from all over the world, and even though their are vast differences between us and what we have seen, experienced and endured, on the pitch, we are all equal.

Thanks for your time!