A YEAR AGO TODAY, by Liz Gall: 9th August 2016

A year ago today, after days of online abuse, I finally woke up to some positive messages in my quest to take aid to Calais.

My daughter, Holly,  had been on a coach trip to Le Touquet with her school, which returned through Calais. She was upset by what she witnessed when their coach stopped on the bridge and wanted to know why we just couldn’t buy the refugees a ticket.

By the end of the day ‘Calais Refugee Support’ was formed.  We had donation points set up in Scotland - Claire Macaulay , North London -Nadiyya Constant, East London - Heidi Miner Guildford - Christina Manning, Gloucester - Claire Earl and Eastbourne - Marcie Clarke and I’d committed to driving to Calais with a car load of aid to find out more.

We delivered our first car loads of aid to a small church hall full of retired ladies and gents organising the good from the bad and issuing tickets via L’auberge for refugees to collect much needed items. Medicine du Monde occupied a good sized area in the North, there were no kitchens in the camp and only a few restaurants along the high street, faulty toilets stank and water supplies were limited. The camp covered the whole area between the Motorway, Rue de Garennes and Chemin des Dunes and was home to just 3000 refugees; around 2000 Sudanese and only around 300 women and children - mainly housed in the Jules Ferry Centre. The incredible sense of hope that resonated around the camp was quite overwhelming, and I was humbled by the hospitality and care I was shown by the refugees.

What a difference a year makes!

I returned to Calais every weekend, and stayed in the jungle, sleeping in shifts between Mark Thelord & Janders Afrine or Memo Petro Weso & I (with Mr Tim) in their little red tent. One weekend I heard how after a beating to the head and knife to the leg, the victim was taken to Calais hospital where he received 22 stitches to the head (without being cleaned) and was immediately discharged back to the jungle. The stitches became infected as there was still mud in his hair and he was refused any follow up treatment because he was an asylum seeker and not a refugee. The stitches were later removed with a rusty razor blade by a friend.

On my return I was lucky to speak to Hassan Khalid Chaudhry who wanted to know how he could help - by the end of the week, Hassan, Raid Ali,Natalie Harrison and myself rocked up in Calais with an old caravan & bags of over the counter meds to a huge queue. 

Our aim was to put medics in the jungle on Saturdays and Sunday when MdM did not open. By November we were providing 7 day care.  We now have a great relationship with the Calais hospital who we operate a mutual referral system & are now the only medics in the camp.

Refugee Support currently has just short of 8000 followers. Our First Aid Team has a growing database of medics, dentists, podiatrists and physiotherapist volunteers who are providing essential care in the jungle 7 days a week. Our UK team provides starter packs for new arrivals and is currently piloting a project providing free english lessons and drop in healthcare clinics in East London with a view to rolling this out in other NASS dispersal areas.

A big thank you to everyone who is helping us to continue our work and much love to all the wonderful friends I've met on the way.

OH HOW YOUR LIFE CAN CHANGE IN A YEAR by Jaz O'Hara of The Worldwide Tribe: August 5th 2016

Today is my one-year anniversary with the Jungle. One year ago today I visited the camp for the first time, and it changed the whole course of my life forever.

It’s been the craziest, most overwhelming, emotional year i’ve ever known, by a very long way...

From meeting my heroes, my inspiration, on that first trip, which sparked a Facebook post that went viral and in turn galvanized a movement, to learning that even without anything, you can be rich.

This year has been about people coming together in support of each other ... The Worldwide Tribe.

In this last year The Worldwide Tribe has grown beyond my wildest imagination and achieved more than I could ever have dreamed of. Not only have we provided food, clothing, shelter and volunteers in camps all over Europe and the Middle East, we have produced 6 short films about life inside a refugee camp in the meantime.

We have done a bit of everything, from setting up Wifi in camps in Calais and Lesvos, to working on beach rescue operations and funding Search and Rescue training for 3 team members. We have run football tournaments and funded 6 teachers salaries in Turkey, supported therapeutic art sessions in Zaatari camp in Jordan, helped fund a custom fire-truck in the Calais Jungle and spoken at the UN headquarters in New York.

I’ve gone from knowing NOTHING about refugees to talking in schools, universities (including to my old uni course), colleges, offices, conferences and even giving a TED talk! 

We’ve held a one-day festival at the Barbican, have an on-going exhibition at the South Bank and have established amazing partnerships and fundraised for The School Bus project, Liz and the Women and Children’s centre and Mary and Sikander in the Kids Cafe in Calais.

We have fundraised for a new set of teeth for Jakoub after his were pulled out by the Taliban, for Noor to be able to walk again after a bomb went off at her uni in Damascus, for a vehicle for food distribution in Idomeni and for 21-year-old Hamed, attempting to stop his unjust deportation back to Afghanistan.

Last night, I went out for dinner with my family to celebrate my little brother Fin’s birthday. I sat in the restaurant in my home town feeling reflective. It was the restaurant I used to work in when I was 16.

How did I imagine my life would be in ten years time back when I was 16? Would I have been happy and proud of where I am now…

As we were eating, the waiter brought over a beautiful glass of champagne on a tray with fruit in the top. I presumed it was for Fin but the waiter asked, ‘Is there someone here called Jaz?’

Turns out someone at the bar had bought it for me to say thank you for the work I have been doing. They were gone before I could see who it was, but it made me feel so so grateful…

Grateful for the opportunity to follow my heart and my passion. Grateful that I love what I do, that I know that it’s right, that I’m on the right journey and that I’m exactly where I should be. Grateful that I believe in my work, I give it my everything, and grateful that people appreciate that.

Thank you to that person who bought that champagne, and thank you to everyone who has been on this crazy journey with me, from my friends in the Jungle, to the amazing Worldwide Tribe team, to my inspirational family, especially my little foster bro from Eritrea...you motivate me every day. I love you all SO SO much.

IT'S "CALAIS - PEOPLE TO PEOPLE SOLIDARITY - ACTION FROM UK'S" FIRST BIRTHDAY, by Clement Blain: July 31st 2016

Today is Calais - People to People Solidarity - Action from UK's  birthday. This group is effectively one year old. 

12 months + 1 day ago, there were virtually no UK ( or European) volunteers in the camp. The stalwarts were mostly a handful of burned out french volunteers wondering if they'd be able to reach the autumn, go through the winter...while No Borders were recording police abuses.

I created this group  right after Cameron's speech about the "swarms of migrants". First dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of people felt the need to engage directly. This group, among others, is the consequence of people considering: "Enough's  enough".

1 year later this group is still here; Cameron is not.

We got plenty of different people involving themselves (the group is now 48,400 members strong) educated, uneducated, rich, poor, left /center/right wing, from cities or country side, from different religions, different family situation,s , different ages, different life styles, different lives... I'm still amazed by that.  

Don't hesitate and have a look back. Check what we were working on one year ago. What were the emergencies back then. It remains shit, but it did change a lot. We made hell slightly more comfortable.

And always remember that in the darkest of the times  even the worst acts and the worst words can lead to us improving ourselves. You don't necessarily have to be loud and shout to bring about change. You just need to decide to bring some change.