Jayburgess.net Fundraiser
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Friends. Blundy and I will be travelling to Calais next week to help at the refugee camp.
Aim:
We want to buy a caravan and park it on site as a few have already done. We will live in it whilst we volunteer building shelters, serving food and distributing donations. Blundy's staying for 5 days and I for a month, at which point I'll make sure a family with children move in to it for the winter.
We need:
- A caravan (used 2 berth - budget £500)
- Ferry ticket (£150)
- Winter items (sleeping bags, blankets, camping gear, thick coats, good boots, tents).
- If we manage to fill up the caravan and car, any extra donated money will be used to buy essential items for refugees we meet in the camp. We will pay all of our expenses ourselves.
Potential caravan use:
- House mothers with new borns in the days following birth.
- A place for the very young to keep warm when the weather turns.
A bit more info:
I spent 5 days in the camp last week. Almost all of the people I met were from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Their best options in life - return to their war-torn countries, risk their lives attempting to cross the English channel, or live in squalor waiting for asylum in camps such as these across Europe.
That squalor is people scrapping for bananas on the ground, faeces lining the bushes along waterlogged paths, overflowing portaloos and skips irregularly changed, people returning from the border at night with broken legs, kids without their parents, tear gas attacks from the French police and discrimination by many locals. Babies are being born there with a pop up tent for protection this winter.
The refugees offered to share their food and drink with me. They smiled and said hello as I walked by, thanked me continuously, offered to help me as I worked. They miss their home countries and long for peace there. All they ask for is a better life.
On leaving I ran into a Somalian man, Bukar, with big lively eyes and a golden smile. He told me not to cry, offered me a beer, and told me he had been running since he could remember, that he'd cried so much he had no more tears. He knew that one day he would stop having to run - not today, probably not tomorrow, but one day. And then he wanted spend the rest of his life saving other people, so they wouldn't have to see what he'd seen.
I came away with an overwhelming sense of how much our lives are down to the luck of the draw. We are all cut from the same cloth.
I don't have any long term solutions to the crisis. This is about immediate humanitarian aid.
Please give.
Thanks
Jay & Blundy
Read:
5 Major Myths Of Europe's Refugee And Migrant Crisis Debunked:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55f83aa7e4b09ecde1d9b4bc
Refugee crisis: What life is really like inside the 'Jungle’ in Calais:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-what-life-is-really-like-inside-the-jungle-in-calais-a6674256.html
Calais refugee camp conditions diabolical:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/calais-refugee-camp-conditions-diabolical-report-jungle-bacteria-hygiene
Aim:
We want to buy a caravan and park it on site as a few have already done. We will live in it whilst we volunteer building shelters, serving food and distributing donations. Blundy's staying for 5 days and I for a month, at which point I'll make sure a family with children move in to it for the winter.
We need:
- A caravan (used 2 berth - budget £500)
- Ferry ticket (£150)
- Winter items (sleeping bags, blankets, camping gear, thick coats, good boots, tents).
- If we manage to fill up the caravan and car, any extra donated money will be used to buy essential items for refugees we meet in the camp. We will pay all of our expenses ourselves.
Potential caravan use:
- House mothers with new borns in the days following birth.
- A place for the very young to keep warm when the weather turns.
A bit more info:
I spent 5 days in the camp last week. Almost all of the people I met were from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Their best options in life - return to their war-torn countries, risk their lives attempting to cross the English channel, or live in squalor waiting for asylum in camps such as these across Europe.
That squalor is people scrapping for bananas on the ground, faeces lining the bushes along waterlogged paths, overflowing portaloos and skips irregularly changed, people returning from the border at night with broken legs, kids without their parents, tear gas attacks from the French police and discrimination by many locals. Babies are being born there with a pop up tent for protection this winter.
The refugees offered to share their food and drink with me. They smiled and said hello as I walked by, thanked me continuously, offered to help me as I worked. They miss their home countries and long for peace there. All they ask for is a better life.
On leaving I ran into a Somalian man, Bukar, with big lively eyes and a golden smile. He told me not to cry, offered me a beer, and told me he had been running since he could remember, that he'd cried so much he had no more tears. He knew that one day he would stop having to run - not today, probably not tomorrow, but one day. And then he wanted spend the rest of his life saving other people, so they wouldn't have to see what he'd seen.
I came away with an overwhelming sense of how much our lives are down to the luck of the draw. We are all cut from the same cloth.
I don't have any long term solutions to the crisis. This is about immediate humanitarian aid.
Please give.
Thanks
Jay & Blundy
Read:
5 Major Myths Of Europe's Refugee And Migrant Crisis Debunked:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/55f83aa7e4b09ecde1d9b4bc
Refugee crisis: What life is really like inside the 'Jungle’ in Calais:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-crisis-what-life-is-really-like-inside-the-jungle-in-calais-a6674256.html
Calais refugee camp conditions diabolical:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/calais-refugee-camp-conditions-diabolical-report-jungle-bacteria-hygiene
Organizer
Jay Burgess
Organizer