Jawaad’s story
My name is Jawaad and I am a Mancunian barber. For the last two weeks I’ve been doing hair cuts with Care4Calais for Afghan families who were airlifted out of Kabul. I have my own shop in Stockport called Gents Cut and have been cutting hair for about seven years now. But it wasn’t always this way. I had a difficult childhood, didn’t really have anyone to care for me and I fell off the rails big time in my teens. I spent some time inside. I’m not gonna say that was a good thing but it changed me. I …
Helping young Afghan refugees
I sat in the corridor of a hotel with some young Afghan children desperate to be entertained. It must be so tiresome for them confined to a hotel in a cold, wet country where everything feels different. A small child sat clutching a ‘Happy families’ card game, the type you might easily discard from a Christmas cracker. After a little convincing to open the packet, I set about trying to teach them how to play. One by one, they began to giggle and call over their friends, totally captivated in a simple game which for a few moments at …
Clearances in Dunkirk
On Thursday evening I got a panicked text from a friend in Dunkirk. Hundreds of riot police were descending on the large camp there, they said, accompanied by dozens of vans filled with CRS police and gendarmerie. Behind them were refuse trucks for the tents and belongings to be thrown in. And behind the trucks were land cleaners and diggers. This patch of scrub land had been home to a growing number of refugees, mainly from the persecuted Kurdish regions of the Middle East. It was turning into a bustling community, which is the very thing that terrifies the …
Sanam’s story
Last weekend we began providing hairdressing services for Afghan people who have fled the Taliban and are now living in the hotels we’re visiting. And yesterday my heart was touched in a way I can’t even explain when I met three-year-old Sanam and her mum. Sanam’s mum sat in the chair to have her hair cut by Lucy, our volunteer hairdresser, and Sanam smiled as I passed a toy car back and forth with her. Then Sanam herself sat down, and let Lucy cut her hair too. As conversation flowed between us, Sanam’s mum explained why her dad wasn’t …
AJ’s story
My name is AJ and i would like to tell you the story of my journey to Calais. It’s no easier or harder than hundreds you may hear but the thing is these journeys still have to be made. There is still no safe route to claim asylum in the UK. So many families lose their sons needlessly as they have to risk their lives to make this journey to escape war, poverty, famine and violence in Sudan. I speak English well so now that I am in Calais I have been helping Care4Calais and FAST with interpreting when they …
Yemen executions
Today a refugee from Calais messaged me the most horrific picture. It brought home to me the fear and suffering that drives some people to flee their homeland, and the need for Care4Calais to keep doing what we do. The message had a picture of helpless, frightened young man being manhandled by armed soldiers. He looked no older than a schoolboy, but he was being dragged roughly to his execution. Minutes later, my friend explained, he was publicly shot to death by a firing squad. He was 17 years old. According to reports, the boy was Abdulaziz Ali M …
Meet Mara, Manchester volunteer
I’m Mara, and I’m part of the core team at Care4Calais Manchester. This week for the first time I went on one of the distributions to a hotel where refugees from Afghanistan are staying. When we arrived we met loads of families with lots of children. The kids were running around, but had nothing really to do. Luckily we’d also brought boxes of toys with us. We gave out loads of toys, kids pens, paper and crayons, and clothes. The kids were so delighted with the toys. They came running round the corner when they heard about it from …
Aras’s story
“In Iraq, for a refugee, life is like hell” Aras, a Syrian, is living in a camp of over 1000 tents in the Governate of Hasakah, in Iraq. “I have been in this camp many years, I left Syria when I was 16, I’m now 25. “This is my home, but there is no future here and no security. I left because of the war – there was no education and the pressure to fight with one side or another was too great. I didn’t know who I was fighting or why . I was only a child. …
Volunteer stories: Katie
My name is Katie , and I’ve just taken a couple of days off work to help in the Care4Calais Manchester warehouse after seeing their Facebook post about needing support. I’m an occupational therapist at a hospital here in Manchester, and I’ve worked with many soldiers who’ve been injured in Afghanistan. That makes this a subject close to my heart, and I feel a real emotional connection to the crisis. I’ve also been a part of the mental health team supporting veterans. Many of the soldiers I help have teammates in Afghanistan as well as close friends they made on …
Volunteer stories: Cici
My name is Cici and I am 12 years old. My mum has been going to Calais for years now to help the refugees. I always helped her pack the donations and liked sorting things out. Then she got a job helping refugees in England but I didn’t really know what she did to help here. To me refugees were people in France. One night about three weeks ago I saw my mum on the telly talking about refugees and how they need help here. I’d also been watching all the stories about Afghanistan on the news and I suddenly …