Introducing Steve Smith MBE, Care4Calais’ CEO

Today we’re proud to introduce Steve Smith MBE as the CEO of Care4Calais.

Steve joins us after spending many years doing incredible and much-admired work to help refugees and the victims of armed violence around the world.

Having begun his career as a military officer, he has made it his personal mission in life to help people suffering in the ways that he has seen first hand.

“Having served in several war zones, I know what it’s like to be shot at, and to see bombs going off nearby. I know what it’s like to be afraid.

“But I always knew that I would be going home. I knew that my family was safe, and that my home was safe. Refugees don’t have that certainty.

“As a refugee fleeing war, conflict and persecution, you flee with what you can carry and nothing else. Often, you know there is no way back. You now need to survive, possibly with your family, with whatever is in the bags you’ve taken with you.

“That is the refugee experience.

“I have long respected Care4Calais volunteers’ understanding of, and empathy with, that experience. It has enabled this organisation to achieve great things. And I consider it a privilege to now be working alongside them.”

Steve was previously Chief Executive of the International Refugee Trust and, before that, of Action on Armed Violence.

He has coordinated relief efforts for movements of refugees, and in the course of his advocacy work has worked closely with the UN, WCO and British Houses of Parliament, he also sits on the board of Keeping Children Safe.

As the new CEO at Care4Calais, Steve is determined above all else to enable refugees to find “a safe place they can call home.

“So often, refugees are thought of as ‘the other’ – with different languages, different cultures and customs. But, from personal experience, I know they are people just like us.

“In their former lives, they may have been school teachers, librarians, lorry drivers, bank clerks, factory workers. Normal people doing normal jobs. Now they find themselves cast adrift.

“They deserve dignity, respect and safety. And working with the wonderful team at Care4Calais we will do all in our power to ensure they have just that.”