Care4Calais - 4000 Refugees nearby

Last week I started volunteering for Care4Calais, a refugee organization. I signed up to be a virtual volunteer and also an occasional in person volunteer. Today we had an induction meeting online for the in person volunteering. Interestingly, all of the other 3 new volunteers are also from other countries. We learned that 4000+ refugees from all over the world are staying in hotels in the Heathrow and Slough area, and probably the same amount in the Reading and Maidenhead area. There is also a great need for clothing, toys and entertainment, such as soccer and activities for the kids. 80% of the refugees are young men under 30, 10% are children and 10% are women. The most common languages spoken are: arabic, spanish, farsi and one more I forgot. 

For my virtual volunteering my supervisor will send me names of people that need to be contacted and I help them with whatever is  needed: Apply for a ARC (Alien Reg. card), find ESOL (English for second language learners) classes, find a college that takes asylum seekers and register them, set up Dr. appointments, etc. 

It's quite an eye opening job. I chatted with a 25 year old men from Eritrea who wanted to go to college here. He told me he never went to school, learned English in the refugee camp and worked as a houseworker since he's a child. A couple of refugees lied about their age to get better schooling. The "Home Office" has a way to check for their age, so they often are caught. 

It is quite heart breaking to hear their background story.  

Update: Dec. 2023

I was also able to teach English classes to several refugees in the Slough area. Looking back, getting to know these sweet people and helping out in a small way has been a highlight of living here. A fun part was that Sarah and Janette were able to join me in some of the teaching sessions (Janette when she came to visit us in December). Another interesting part is that some of them speak German and French, having lived as refugees in Germany or France. So, I was able to teach English using sometimes German and my very broken French! :)

In addition, we were able to find some donated bikes and some inexpensive secondhand bikes to give to refugees in need. This boy from Armenia had to walk to school each way for 40 minutes but is now able to bike to school. Sarah organized fundraisers at her school for her personal project (charity week) with a bake sale, penny wars, etc. and was able to raise over 500 GPB for the Bikes for refugee organization. (5 kg in coins!!). 

There are also several Ukrainian refugees in the area. We became friends with Oleina, who fled Ukraine and had to leave her son behind to fight the war (he's about 26). She's so worried about him and it's heart breaking to hear her story. She's staying with a young UK couple who opened up their home to host her for a year. A week ago (middle of January) Olena's son got injured with shrapnel wounds and six of his friends got killed. She is now back in Ukraine to be with her son.

Here we are celebrating Thanksgiving with her in a restaurant. We all had to work/school, so no time for cooking (plus our oven is too small for a turkey!).