What did you think when you first saw the photo above? Factually speaking we have 3 people weaving a colourful bracelet in a warehouse.
What do I see, and feel? Love. Beauty. Humanity. Community + Family. Hope.
Read on until the end of this article and you will understand why.
SYMBOLIC
As I stood back in admiration of the people with whom I shared a lovely lunch, this trio caught my eye. It was another crisp cold winter day, many of us were far from from home, and we were taking a break from a hive of morning logistical activities. Yet my friends here still selflessly brimmed with a creative desire to share more with those who have had to flee their homes for their survival.
I was in sheer awe. Not only by the symbolism of this moment, but the fact I could fuel it with such powerful meaning + feeling after all we experienced together in Calais. I have been yearning to share all this since my return late November 2023 and thankful I now have the chance to paint my feelings into prose.
CARE4CALAIS (C4C)
Care4Calais is a charity providing direct aid and support to refugees in the UK, Northern France and Belgium. This can include providing services and essential items to support refugees with daily living, alongside enabling and assisting them with accessing and negotiating various public provisions (e.g. accommodation) and legal systems and processes (e.g. claims and appeals). C4C are also involved in advocacy and campaigns supporting refugees, and are one of several organisations challenging the UK government’s Rwanda asylum plan.
I have been a volunteer with C4C in the UK for a little while, and had discussed going across to Calais with friends and fellow volunteers Katie + Amber. Katie wasn’t able to come along on this occasion as she was engrossed in incredible work supporting refugees living in dire conditions at Weathersfield Airfield (a former MOD (Ministry of Defence) site now being used as a mass accommodation site for refugees seeking asylum). So myself and Amber went across and volunteered for 5 days.
C4C IN NORTHERN FRANCE
Care4Calais supports refugees at designated sites (not official camps) across Calais and Dunkirk. Operations are led by a small, tight-knit team of co-ordinators from a warehouse that serves as their base of operations (as discussed above). Countless short-term and long-term volunteers come through the base’s doors and shutters all year round. The direct aid and support provided by C4C consists of essential daily living provisions (such as clothing, tents, sleeping bags) and services (including hair cutting, hot drinks, and bike + clothes repair stations).
CONTEXT (REFUGEES IN CALAIS)
Although some families, namely women and children, are based in small accommodation centres, most of the refugees in Northern France are essentially wild camping in select sites across Calais and Dunkirk (mostly consisting of men and children). Many originate from several countries across Asia and Africa, with France rarely their final intended stop along their journey.
C4C is one of several organisations providing support to refugees, with the French government not only refusing to provide official recognition and support, but also adopting a hostile practice of regularly removing refugees from these sites, stripping them of their belongings, and uprooting them elsewhere. This happened in early December 2023, days after me + Amber returned to the UK, disregarding the sub-zero temperatures and stormy weather conditions refugees were negotiating.
RESILIENCE
Despite hearing from many refugees about their precarious journeys into France, and the harrowing circumstances that drove them to leave their homes behind, it’s still difficult to imagine the lives they have lived and the adversity they have endured. To leave behind people + places you have long known, to accept you may never return to them, to risk your life along dangerous routes (freezing waters), in extreme weather conditions (deserts) – these aren’t easy + simple decisions! Is it even fair to describe these movements as a choice when you pick apart the wider circumstances of these fellow humans’ lives?
Can you imagine yourself doing the same?
So to have been able to meet many of the refugees I encountered and to have made a contribution to their lives was a privilege. It’s something I wish I didn’t have to do, that there wasn’t a need for us to be there, that they didn’t have to endure so much struggle and strife, that they didn’t have to leave their homes in the first place.
Nevertheless, here we are, our fellow humans need help to survive, and there are many incredible people in this world who will step forward and do what they can. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to contribute and be part of wider efforts, because it felt like nothing compared to the resilience they continuously exercise to generate hope, to keep going, to survive, and it’s the least they are entitled to as fellow human beings.
MEANING OF MY EXPERIENCE MOVING FORWARD
During my last night of stay at La Base Solidaire in Calais, I was abruptly awoken by a heaviness in my chest. No, I wasn’t having a heart attack. I think I just felt sad that I was leaving a group of such beautiful people who had a profound impact on me. I was reminded greatly about what is important to me and the life I wish to lead. It would be fair to credit my experience with inspiring me to enrol onto the Diploma in Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine at The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries last month (Jan 2024)!
BITTERSWEET GIFT (SOLIDARITY)
I feel somewhat conflicted, have mixed feelings about what I take away from my time in Calais, even about what I’m about to write.
When I drove down to the coast and hopped on the ferry, I generally felt tired and disconnected. Despite the amount of activity we undertook on a daily basis, I somehow came away revitalised, energised, renewed.
Staggering.
Why do I then feel conflicted?
Because it feels somewhat selfish.
We didn’t go to Calais to transform our own lives, to make individual gains from our experience. On the contrary, it was to give all we could to support the refugees we met, and to assist organisations like C4C in doing this. My feelings when leaving were just inadvertent side effects, bonuses, consequences.
Also, we could leave whenever we liked, and return to better conditions and circumstances, an improved condition of existence, whilst they still toiled through adversity – both our colleagues + refugees. It feels awful, particularly after witnessing how hard things are for them.
Moreover, I am wary and cautious of how this outcome may misrepresent the refugees I met and the work me and fellow volunteers were doing. It’s something I feel very passionate about. We don’t want refugees to be dehumanised, that their circumstances be pitied, glamourised and/or glorified. Such ideas are hurtful and upsetting, because we know it is the last thing they would want or deserve, and we would never want our fellow humans to feel this way in such circumstances – after all they continue to experience + endure. We would loathe the idea of encouraging volunteering to make one feel better about themselves, to consume/attend to the suffering of others for our own gain like we were on (an unethical) holiday. Dignity and respect will forever be at the core of how we view and approach the work we do.
Why did I feel renewed?
All the people I met, be they a refugee or fellow volunteer, reminded and taught me things about myself, and underlined what is most important to me in life. I find it mind-boggling that so much love + pain, humanity + suffering, can coexist in one space. Yet here we were, at these remote sites, in this warehouse, working to alleviate people’s pain + suffering by elevating through selfless acts of love and humanity, together, one step at a time.
The significance of caring for your fellow human, of the sharing and exchange of simple sentiments and essential items of living, fostered this love and humanity. I was reminded of how powerful just simply being with someone in times of adversity can be. I experienced these transformative connections within the warehouse AND at designated sites, with volunteers AND refugees. Feeling renewed thus underlined how this was the essence of life in motion, generating moments that make it worth living. For even a brief moment my condition of existence felt purposeful + fulfilled – it was beautiful, serene, reaffirming.
Like Niall, one of the C4C Co-ordinators said: ‘I finally found something that gets me out of bed in the morning.’
Why is the bracelet then symbolic?
I never told anyone during my time in Calais that my birthday had come and gone. Nevertheless, the gift of giving + sharing I continuously witnessed + experienced was more than I could ask for to commemorate + celebrate life.
From the moment we arrived I felt an instant strong sense of community, particularly with fellow volunteers who I rapidly grew to admire + respect. I am grateful for the time, space, moments + interactions we shared, and glad I was able to thank them all, wish them well, and let them know I will think of them often for what they gave me, for what we shared. It is incredible how much love and humanity flowed through our places + encounters.
The different strands of the bracelet thus for me symbolise how when people of different walks + talks, spaces + places, of this Earth coalesce in solidarity, for a shared meaning + purpose, the unified bonds we can form are beautiful.
This gives me hope that things can change, that there are other ways, to lead our lives in this world. To appreciate the efforts we exercise with selfless intent + goodwill, however small they may be, whatever form they may take, whenever + wherever we can, and to not feel guilty about not doing more. To be grateful that we are trying, and not alone, in this fight.
GET INVOLVED
To get involved and volunteer with C4C in Calais visit: https://care4calais.org/get-involved/volunteer-in-calais/. You are also welcome to contact myself with any further ideas, comments and questions.
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