My Story: I am a third year law student at Boston College Law and am interning at an NGO in London. I really wanted to do volunteer work in my spare time and decided to get involved in assisting refugees in the camps in Northern France.
The Project: A few friends and I are using Easter weekend to volunteer at the Calais refugee camp in Northern France. We are volunteering through an organization called Help Refugees (http://www.helprefugees.org.uk/what-we-do/) to assist in any way possible---sorting donations in a warehouse, helping prep food in the soup kitchen, and passing out sleeping bags/blankets. Before we go, we would like to buy supplies that the organization needs. Although lots of donations have been coming in from around the world, many resources have been lost when French authorities demolished a large portion of the camp a few weeks ago. While some refugees have been moved into government run shipping containers and other sanctioned areas across France, many have taken to living under bridges or other deserted areas.
How You Can Help: The organization Help Refugees is now in desperate need of materials like blankets, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, men's shoes and trousers, etc.Your funds will go directly to paying for these donations we will buy in London. We are using our own funds to pay for costs to get to the Calais, so ALL of the donations you give will go directly to purchasing goods for the refugees. Thanks for showing your love for humanity and your support of the refugees!
More information on the Calais- refugee situation:
There are up to 4,000 people living in squalid conditions in Calais, mostly men, but also women and children including a few hundred unaccompanied minors. France will not allow official aid organizations like the Red Cross or UNHCR to enter the country and take control of the situation. Instead, they would rather bulldoze the makeshift shelters and communities these refugees and volunteers have created over the last few years.
(Recent news coverage of the situation http://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2016/03/d... )
In terms of legal action, many in the UK are campaigning/lobbying to increase the number of asylees that the government will accept. From the U.S the crisis seems like a distant nightmare. But here in Europe where the suffering is so close, it's impossible to ignore.
* Remember when donating that every penny counts! Give as little or as much as you can spare!
* I will continue to receive donations a week after my trip so that I can buy more goods and send them to Calais with folks who are making the trip in April.
