28 September 2015
Eid in the Jungle
On Saturday 26/09/2015, a team of seventeen 51品茶 staff and volunteers set out from London at 4.30am to deliver food items and hot meals to refugees and migrants in the Jungle, Calais. We were all tired from the early start, but as the minibus set off there was an unmistakable buzz of excitement about the day ahead.
There we were greeted by volunteers from the organisation, L鈥橝uberge des Migrants, which has been facilitating the delivery of urgent aid to refugees and migrants since 2008.
After a much needed caffeine fix we got stuck in, sorting clothing from the big piles of donated items in the warehouse and loading MH bags with food items like rice, oil, fresh vegetables and tinned chickpeas, sweetcorn and tomatoes, as well as tea, milk and biscuits.
As the France team arrived with over 2,000 pieces of fresh halal lamb, all given through Qurbani donations, some of us moved onto helping our chef in the kitchen. With four big bags of onions needing to be prepared we soon had an assembly line of peelers and choppers going. There were tears aplenty, but it wasn鈥檛 long until the onions were in the pot and we were onto packing bags of halal sweets for the camp鈥檚 children.
As we neared the camp all we could see was barbed wire and security fences. Passing over an abandoned railway line to cross into Jungle territory I couldn鈥檛 help but feel that the railway symbolised the status of those living in this no man鈥檚 land, stuck between two countries, without any certainty for the future and forgotten by the outside world.
A volunteer from L鈥橝uberge des Migrants told me that the overwhelming majority of people he had come across during his work in Calais were fleeing devastating conflicts and serious violence. Arriving back in London, our thoughts were still with the Jungle. How were people settling down for the night? What would they do once the winter came? And what did the future hold for them and their families?
Not only did visiting the camp make us more grateful for the comforts and opportunities we have been blessed with, but it also proved just how important the support of our donors is, in providing much needed relief to refugees and migrants in Calais and across Europe, many of whom are seeking refuge from horrors we can鈥檛 begin to imagine.
By Tijen Horoz, Senior Communications Editor
