Calais Light

One of the key things refugees need when they get to England, (apart from a humane & speedy asylum-claims process) is functional, relevant English. Did you know there are hardly any available English teaching resources directly applicable to & designed for UK refugees? 📕 📖 One day, maybe there will be but we searched, researched & consulted with other refugee charities that teach English. Finally, we found a range that works for us & for refugees. We don’t have much money – but we bought the entire range! 🖊️ 📚   Handily, we have lots of volunteers who are teachers! But anyone can do it!  On CL Convoy No.28 in July, 3 CL UK Volunteers who are actually teachers in their day jobs, set up tables out in the mud & dust. We brought boxes of brand new, high quality English teaching resources all sourced, for this purpose, in the UK: mini-white boards, whiteboard felt tips, special erasers,  situational flash cards, phonics cards, English language course books at all levels, student work books, expecting to teach adults. There were lots of takers, though we had to persuade a few. Unsurprisingly their minds were on other things  - like survival!  But once we started teaching, explaining, talking – people were so keen. Some even taught each other Sometimes it was survival phrases  like “I need the doctor”  or “Where is my room?” or simple conversation starters like “how are you?” or “what is your name?”. It’s a gentle and individual approach – we are led by what they need. Pretty soon kids ran over to the table too, ready to play. So bingo! We had a colouring & drawing kids station, learning through play, games & practicing simple sentences.   Thanks to the wonderful @mobilerefugeesupport who gave up their respite day, we were able to provide 2 full days of teaching.   Can you help us buy more up-to-date & engaging teaching resources which will help refugees begin their social integration with our help? 16 pack mini whiteboards & pens & erasers is £38. 1 English Course book is £11.50.   Please donate on our website – Your support could make such a difference to their lives 💛 https://lnkd.in/eBsjB_bk #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #VolunteeringMatters

One of the ways we can show our gratitude & solidarity to long term NGO volunteers who are based out in Calais is relieving them of the duty of buying & cooking daily lunch for all volunteers 🥘 🍽️ There are usually 20 of us Calais Lighters, plus maybe 6 /7 NGO long termers & any number of other volunteers, coming separately or in a small group. After 28 trips, we have discovered we have some brilliant cooks & sous-chefs who are regular Calais Lighters on our convoys. Terence, Abhi, Natalie, Clare, Mihaela, Cleo & Kayla - you know who you are!  You are top cooks! They shop for & prepare hot, quite complex & delicious vegan meals for upwards of 35 people from scratch, in less than 2 hours, both days of our trips..With multiple dishes.  Long-termers in Calais & Dunkirk have to operate week in & week out in precarious & dangerous settings, distributing humanitarian aid, witnessing & even worse, absorbing all the trauma, need & frustration that displaced people have to endure. They serve in all weathers, just as refugees survive & cope without water, shelter, food, appropriate clothes & comfort in all weathers. Calais Light volunteers travel from around the UK & offer extra people-power & the best help we can provide for the weekend. We actively rally to support the refugees AND our partner NGOs.  Over 8.5 years we've also noticed they don't get many treats. So we even buy a few nice things - when we can. On CL Convoy No.28, one volunteer was delighted that we’d bought “fancy” butter & olives! And why not. We feed anybody & everybody in the warehouse, Care4Calais volunteers, Calais Lighters, refugees, everybody is welcome. Something nice to eat in the middle of a long day before getting back to it 💪 Solidarity! Please donate via calaislight.com so we can continue this support 👏 #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #Compassion #VolunteeringMatters

Tent building – how useful would you be? ⛺Picture the scene: misshapen bundles of dozens of used tents, different shapes & sizes, dome tents, 4-person ridge tents, tiny 1-person pop up tents, with bits missing, poles absent & broken fixtures. Your task is to, at speed, work out how to erect them, check them, fix & really clean them so they’re fit for purpose. In teams. A daunting job even for a seasoned camper! Some newbie volunteers have never put a tent up before! But veteran Calais Lighters help our newcomers to learn & master the right techniques & checks super fast & to get them ready in bulk for Care4Calais’ coming distributions. It’s not about “that will do” – the tents must be pristine, as if they were being sold on eBay. We’re aware this process is a tiny cog in the wheel of NGO distributions in Calais. In this instance, our volunteers assist Care4Calais in providing refugees with a clean & durable tent. Not just tents – these used tents form temporary homes. Places for a semblance of privacy, for shelter before the next brutal & regular eviction by armed police. Somewhere to just sit down in peace. Briefly. #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #VolunteeringMatters #VolunteeringNow

This is such a great piece, great work Mark, pleased we could feed in a little at Refugee Action - so important to shine a light on this grubby profiteering in asylum accommodation - now is the time for change….

Worm making on CL Convoy No 28 – It’s a long process! 🪱⌛ A mammoth task done in record time! Last weekend a group of Calais Light volunteers helped at the Mobile Refugee Support warehouse in Dunkirk to process a MOUNTAIN of 1,300 donated used sleeping bags from a festival in the Netherlands. This meant unpacking, checking, sniffing (yes really!) cleaning, flattening, rolling & stuffing 12 sleeping bags into a giant sleeping bag worm of one! - labelling, cable-tying them closed & moving to an organised pile. We all quickly found our roles, got on with it & formed a perfect production line. A worm conveyor belt. And MRS said we shifted a pile in a day which would have taken them weeks! It was quite special. It might not seem like an important job in the grand scheme of things, but worm-making ensures that sleeping bags can be distributed efficiently & stock levels are easy to calculate. A small but real way to help the extremely busy & committed team at MRS. Facing the sleeping bag mountain was daunting, it’s sweaty & hard work to lift once there’s 12 packed into a worm! But it’s all about making a difference in any way we can. And it’s one of the best things about weekend volunteering with NGOs who are committed to making refugees’ lives better – the huge impact we can make in such a short space of time 💪 #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #VolunteeringMatters #VolunteeringNow

Last Tuesday, Calais Light made history in Nigel Farage’s political constituency of Clacton, one day before his maiden speech. How? We threw a fabulous dinner party in a beautiful Clacton restaurant on the beachfront & invited 10 local, white Clacton residents, 13 disabled refugees from African & Arab countries to whom we teach English & 7 CL volunteers. It was historic because of the landslide victory Farage won just the week before - which was illustrative of the hostile & racist attitude towards migration & migrants of many voters in that area. A mindset Calais Light challenges & aims to change. So our party was joyful! 😁 🎉🎶🍗🥗🍕🍧🍴 It was designed to be completely non-therapeutic!! It wasn’t service-users & providers - doing good. It was about equality. WE PAID FOR EVERYONE. NONE WAS BETTER THAN THE OTHER. Everyone had the same access. All were asked to download & use Google Translate & the white guests made huge efforts to explain every part of the menu to the non English speakers to give them the same level of access & choice to the menu as us. We had 3 profoundly deaf, 2 blind people, & a diabetic - all chose exactly what they fancied. Crucially - both groups were able to see that neither had 3 heads. The conversation was loaded with menu choices, current affairs, hobbies & family - you name it! Introducing a new FORM of party: The Calais Light Getting to Know You Better Community Party. We resist!! #ChangingHeartsAndMinds #LevelPlayingfield #MakingAnEffort #OpenYourEyes #Empathy #FreedomOfChoice #EqualityDiversityInclusion

Calais Light Convoy No 28 got underway today. This is the Brentwood crew, meeting at 9.30am, heading for Dover, where we synched with 2 more cars picking up more of our people along the South Coast & also heading in from the Cotswolds! Calaislighters from Birmingham, Leicester, Cornwall, Ipswich, Brighton, Exeter - our charity coordinates all the separate journeys, timings, car-shares. We book all the ferries, volunteer placements & meals - for everyone. This time it’s 29 of us ready to volunteer for the weekend to do whatever we’re asked to do to help refugees & offer them solidarity with Care4Calais & Mobile Refugee Support. It’s crucial that such work continues. Time to say yes?! 😀🚘⛴️ 🌊 🇫🇷❤️ #aheartforrefugees #volunteering #nohumanisillegal #humanrights #notforprofit #grassroots #volunteeringmatters

As a charity teaching English to refugees in Clacton-on-Sea, we recognise the temperature has gone up for our beneficiaries who live there. Allegedly there has been a 60% rise in hate crimes in Clacton alone this year. Alongside RAMA, our partner refugee NGO, we participated in some excellent training from the Essex Police Hate Crime Department and we want to pass on our new knowledge. Things To Know about Hate Crime & Reporting it 1) Reporting a hate crime is all about PERCEPTION!! You don’t have to actually PROVE that a Hate Crime has occurred - to report an incident to the police. Legally, you are only required to FEEL or PERCEIVE that a hate crime has occurred or that you witness one - to contact the police and tell them about it. The police will take it seriously and investigate it. 2) Hate Crime can be reported by ANYONE AT ALL, not just the victim. If you spot someone shouting racist or homophobic abuse from a car at someone, you could note down the registration and report it. It’s all about being an active ally & having the courage to defend people with protected characteristics: race, sex/gender, sexuality, disability, transgender or religion. 3) Hate crimes often have devastating impacts on the sufferer. Victims suffer abuse or violence, & some have to change their behaviour, lifestyle, clothing or even move home or close businesses to protect themselves from further attack. 4) You can see from the pie chart that 62% of hate crimes in Essex were racist attacks. It’s overwhelmingly the biggest trigger of hate.Victims' reasons for suffering in silence vary from fear of reprisals - to mistrust of the police. But - we asked the Hate Crime Officer why more onlookers don’t report it!. One reason is that the vast majority of hate crime is based on race, & most white people cannot or will not see it as a problem. When something doesn't affect you personally, it's easy to walk on by, downplay it or not think about the levels of deep distress or pain caused. This must change & we want to shout out for more allies.. . 5) Hate crime is different from other crimes. It's about who a person is, about things they cannot control or change. And if it happens once, you can invariably expect more of the same. Without knowing about hate crime reporting, how can people help? That’s why we are sharing these training slides. To empower us all to actively look out for others being targeted in our communities, to realise we personally, legally, have the power to report the abuse/violence/graffiti & to approach our environment with our eyes open to the reality of the consequences of this political landscape 6) Always say: I'm reporting a Hate Crime - when you phone the police so that the details go to the right person #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #StopRwanda #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit

Queer artist Leilah Babirye was deliberately & viciously outed by the press in her home country of Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal & can be punishable by death. Her family disowned her, she was publicly shamed, & refused supervision from the university where she was studying for her Masters degree. Because the country where she was born found her sexuality so offensive, her only option was to flee. Leilah applied for artists' residences in the UK and Sweden, and was finally granted asylum in America. She continued her work in paint and ceramics, enjoying physical & creative freedom & acceptance for who she is. Her work has been exhibited in New York, London and most recently at the international art museum The Sainsbury Centre in Norwich. The images you see here are from her ‘Queer Identity Card’ piece: a series of 24 paintings of imagined queer Ugandans. After unimaginable trauma, Leilah has found a home where she is accepted for her true self, but there are currently 12 countries where the death penalty is a possibility for LGBTQIA+ people. Where their crime is simply being themselves. Where the essence of their humanity leads to hostile and barbaric treatment. This #PrideMonth, we honour those living in places where they are unable to be their true selves 🏳️🌈 #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #StopRwanda #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #VolunteeringMatters #VolunteeringNow

A lunch to remember for #RefugeeWeek 🍴We organised a fantastic corporate volunteering day with one of our top 3 charity partners Refugee Action Kingston (RAK). The senior management team from our corporate sponsor Gap UK showed up with lots of goody bags & cooked a gorgeous lunch for over 100 refugees & asylum seekers. As well as digging into some delicious food, RAK laid on a raffle with hundreds of prizes, a band, games & essential support services. There was also ping pong, as demonstrated by GAP UK’s Marketing Director Angela 🏓 It was a wonderful day to honour the power of finding home in community, a key theme for Refugee Week 2024, as well as friendship & practical services 🧡 It was a brilliant example of collaboration in action, meeting emotional & practical needs for refugees. #WorldRefugeeDay #SimpleActs #OurHome #TogetherWithRefugees #FairBeginsHere #SafeRoutesNow #HonourRefugees #StopRwanda #WeAreAllTheSame #NoHumanIsIllegal #IntegrationNotSegregation #HumanRights #WithRefugees #HelpRefugees #CalaisLight #RefugeesWelcome #SupportRefugees #NotForProfit #Grassroots #VolunteeringMatters #VolunteeringNow