Last week saw the launch of Calais Light UK. They need local N.Essex people to help Calais Light in this initiative and provide temporary boosts of manpower to our partner refugee charity. We are collaborating with the Colchester-based RAMA charity,(Refugee, Asylum Seeker & Migrant Action) which cares for 3,500 clients across Essex.

Calais Light have the aim to put more boots on the ground to counter the sheer level of destitution, heartbreak & isolation felt by refugees and to provide friends who can help them navigate their relocation to wherever the government puts them after arriving in Dover.

Could you be a volunteer for Calais Light, an Essex refugee charity?

They are recruiting NEW volunteers for work in two N. Essex bridging hotels to support refugees getting settled in the UK. Volunteer activities are easy and open for anyone to do: simply chatting with or befriending refugees, playing board games with them, going for local walks, teaching English (both spoken and written) and orienting them to life in the UK.

Volunteers can help weekly/fortnightly. Or if you are able to support our work financially, please donate to our GoFundMe via our website at www.calaislight.com

Refugees have to live on just £45 a week. Usually, they are not allowed to work, so they are absolutely desperate. They are given accommodation but that’s it! Someone has to furnish material help – a bed, wardrobe or settee – clothes. Plus many cannot speak or read or write English so they need ongoing help navigating the scary and strange world they find themselves in and everything that involves: forms, emails, documents, vouchers and appointments.

This year we are launching a Calais Light UK Volunteer Network covering Kent, Essex and part of London. We will be closely working with a number of UK-based refugee charities, and we need active UK volunteers, new & old, to step forward and help.

UK Calais Lighters will undertake everything from explaining documents to booking appointments to driving and sometimes, well, just listening & befriending. We need proactive, committed, ‘can-do’ people who are both enthusiastic and sympathetic. You have to realise the language barrier is a huge obstacle which prevents refugees from settling into a new life & getting what they need – so being prepared to overcome that ( Google Translate/good humour) is vital.

After travelling to Calais 20+ times in 7 years, it’s clear to us that we must also help the thousands of migrants who have arrived in the UK as well as the migrant population in N. France. In short, the need for volunteers has transferred to the UK

Calais Light books everything for you. Whether it will be your first time or you’re one of our veterans, we would love for you to come! If you would like more information on Calais Light then please visit their website: www.calaislight.com.