Dawn O’Porter – Writer and TV presenter

My trip to Calais started positively. I got there and saw wooden shelters going up, volunteers getting food and clothes for the refugees, and the general buzz of productive activity. But it ended with me in floods of tears. As light rain set in, the reality of the coming winter hit me. Children’s faces peeking out of tents, mud creeping up to the entrance level where they sat shivering.

Overwhelmed volunteers and more refugees arriving by the hour after experiencing such horrors from where they fled, and even more on their journey to get there. I left feeling that even the productivity of the day had only made a tiny difference to the increasing numbers of people who need our help.

The Calais camp was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to walk away from, and I have so much respect for the volunteers who have abandoned their own lives to help the people who need it most. It’s selfless, and they deserve our support in helping them help.

Volunteers in the Jungle

by M. Omer A.K.A Dream (from Darfur)

Volunteers in the jungle as usual
overworked, Overwhelmed by all the
flowers and letters of support,
Struggle day and night to make a wonderful jungle life.
As vigilante in the night to make our
lives gloom to a brilliant life,
Because our life’s sorrow, our brilliant light’s
shadow and our emotions grief,
Our language broken as a child with
a new mother tongue,
Our speech silent and our daydreams
Regardless our dreams is dreamy
You gave us a newly hope as merely in the sky,
The sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue, it was dazzled
by a sunlight, that our dreams will become true,
Gorgeous stunning respect for our needs,
So soft-hearted, so soft-spoken,
The peace of understanding in each face,
Jungles are so happy with you from
the sunrise up to the sunset,
As much as mum loves holdings her kids.
Jungle will turn over without your exist,
Our darkness life is lighting with your beings.
Our life glorified by your existence as we all
moonlight’s in the dark night fabulous,
It was a real privilege to meet you,
And our pleasure to welcome you,
Solidarity together we are one, neither
politics nor character shape,
Humanity not religious values, peace, love not war,
We hope to have a love of God working
through people just like you,
Our long time is shortening by means of you.
We never account the time when we
come around with you.
It is so harsh when you say goodbye, everybody
– I’ll see you in a couple of weeks, after we
knows you in deep of the core of our heart,
We don’t know you before you arrived, but after
you take leave of your senses to say goodbye,
I’m so sorry, but you’ll just have to say:
The boat was about a mile from the shore
Finally our boat reached the shore,
I do appreciate that indeed, and I wish you every future
success due that, you are a fruit of a rooted success,
May God bless you greatly for every single little bit.

This poem was written by M. Omer, a refugee from Darfur now living in the Jungle.

Lliana Bird – Radio X DJ and Help Refugees co-founder

Three months ago everything changed. Spurred on by friends who were planning to drop some goods in Calais, we decided to start our own collection. The idea was to raise £1,000 and take a car load of sleeping bags, tents and other essentials to the makeshift refugee camp known as ‘The Jungle’.

Myself and my friends Dawn O’Porter and Josie Naughton figured we would drop off the stuff, make a donation, and walk away feeling like we’d done our bit. Here we are months later with a full-blown charity – Help Refugees. The reason is simple: we were shocked by what greeted us in Calais.

Shocked at the lack of large agencies, charity organisations and NGOs, shocked by the lack of government prescience. How were these people supposed to get processed and their asylum applications considered if there was no one there for them to talk to? Shocked at the incredible work of the volunteers, untrained and unprepared for the enormous task facing them – the care of 6,000 vulnerable, traumatised refugees.

Shocked by the large numbers of small children and women in the camp, having been led to believe by the British media that it was almost exclusively young men. And most of all, shocked at the truly appalling conditions that these people, many of whom have survived horrors the rest of us thankfully can’t even imagine, are being forced to live in. Freezing, wet, damp, unhygienic conditions not fit for any animals. People like the four-year-old girl I saw crouching to pee in the bushes, before her father tried to wash her bottom with a small bottle of water.

Or the generous young man who offered me tea despite having nothing himself; who told me how he’d been forced to flee ISIS, and now was desperate to join his wife and two-year-old daughter, who had been granted asylum in the UK. And the young bright Afghan teen, so proud of the fact he had worked for a living back home, so depressed by the fact that despite him running away from the Taliban he wouldn’t be granted refugee status as we don’t consider Afghanistan officially ‘at war’. I could go on.

These are just a handful of the heartbreaking tales we heard, from people who by all rights, given what they’ve survived and endured, should be welcomed as heroes, and given love and care and some serious psychological support. So here we are, four months later, running our organisation Help Refugees (registered as a charity under the auspices of Prism).

We’re building shelters, funding medics, sending food and sleeping bags… but it isn’t enough. It isn’t even close to enough. With the freezing winter ahead of us, we need to keep these people alive. Please help us help them. We are all human beings here.

Help Refugees UK works with L’ Auberge des Migrants in Calais. The L'Auberge des Migrants team needs short-term and long-term volunteers (see page 83), or you can donate urgent supplies via the Help Refugees wishlist. Click here at leisurefayre.com and follow instructions at checkout for 20% discount and free delivery to Calais. Also visit helprefugees.org.uk; @HelpRefugeesUK. Donate to Help Refugees here.

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