First impressions are that it is dirty, cold, overcrowded, smelly and there are lots of fires burning piles of rubbish.
Some guys from Sudan took us in to their tent area, offered us drinks (!) and told us their incredible stories. One is married to a british woman and has kids who are in the UK and he can’t get home. Heartbreaking! He worked in Asda (with a fake passport obviously) and speaks perfect English.
We met a 21 year old boy who had been through some awful torture and he showed us his scars... horrible. There are kids walking about and loads of people freezing with no footwear on or no coats. They all seem smiley and welcoming despite their shitty situation.
We sat in a tent for ages with about seven guys (inc a 13 year old boy) who told us about their lives in the camp. They get one meal a day and so spend a lot of time sleeping as they have no energy and are constantly ill. One guy who has kids told us he tries to round up the kids and get them to go to the camp school but often the teens don’t want to go and are getting in to smoking and bad habits instead.
We opened the car to get some guy some shoes and everyone started going wild. A big guy with a manchester accent helped us ward off people but it turns out he has never even been to the UK - his wife is from Manchester and so he has picked up the accent from her!
Calais Day 2.
Last night we went to Carrefour and used the remaining bit of our money from donations to buy 12 pairs of men's shoes. Good sturdy walking boot trainer type things which should see them through a few months at least. We had originally saved this remaining money for food but seeing how they needed shoes more we thought this would be better.
We then met with Francois from L'auberge des migrants and handed over the rest of the donations and the shoes. He was super grateful and the most urgent things were put in to his van so he could distribute them straight away. These were shoes, jumpers, blankets and sleeping bags. The rest was locked away in a building they are borrowing from a local. There were about three volunteers there who like us had come over from the UK just to lend a hand and boy, were they needed! They were put straight to work with Francois sorting the food supplies. Many local supermarkets and bakeries donate food like bread, croissants and pastries and this is given out during the day...more on that later.
We headed over to the camp to see where we could help and met up with the guys we had been talking to yesterday. They had tried to escape the night before but had failed. Salim who I mentioned yesterday (his wife and kids are in London and he had been living there until he went home to Syria to his Mum's funeral and can't get back in to the UK as he's not legal) took us to the Syrian tent where until recently about 200 people had been living and sleeping. The rain caused the tent to flood and now they have nowhere. Everything is completely ruined. Since then he said they have had very little help and are trying to live in tiny 1/2 man tents on wet sandy floor.
Salim introduced us to Ali who is very disabled as he was badly injured by a bomb in Syria. Many people with disabilities in the camp have no chance... Ali cannot queue to get food like the others and relies on a lot of help to get washed and dressed even. Luckily he has some very supportive friends.
A few vans with the bread etc arrived at about 3pm and everyone went crazy. A HUGE queue was formed in seconds and it was difficult for the aid workers to control it as many people pushed to the front with reasons why they should get food first. It was so hard to watch. Kids would be sent to the front to beg, which usually worked and they would take back food to their families. Any extra food they would get would be sold or used as a currency.
Finally there are massive pot holes in the ground and the other day we were told that an ambulance came to collect a sick man and got stuck in one of them so if you are thinking of heading down to the jungle to volunteer bring a spade as those holes need to be filled in asap!
Due to a few extremely kind last minute donations we were able to head to Carrefour and buy another 8 pairs of shoes which we gave to Francois to give out to the most needy.
Will write more tomorrow but thank you so much to everyone who has sent us support and donations!
theartofmadeline
areudirty
blakekathryn