In England the news was saying stay in, dont go out, and I get a shared Bla Bla car down to Dover and across to France in driving snow and freezing conditions. Its bloody COLD. How can anyone be sleeping out and staying alive in this weather, even if they are lucky enough to have a blanket and tent. Calais again. Situation is worse than ever, Dont believe that the situation is "over". In Paris more of the same. RCK Refugee Community Kitchen is going strong in Calais providing hot food, as is the Auberge Warehouse, Utopia 56, Help Refugees and the other organisations here are still trying to serve the most basic human needs for people who are now living on the streets since the demolition of the camp in Calais, and the destruction by fire of the camp in Dunkirk. Volunteer numbers are down and donations are down as the media is doing a great job of pretending theres nothing newsworthy going on there. It doesnt cease to amaze me that each time I go to Calais the situation is changed and worse and always mad things happening. So, below first a little update. Help Refugees and the other grassroots organisations say 700 people living rough in Calais and another maybe 400or 500 in Dunkirk. Thats a lot of people out in the Woods and wasteland and on the streets, and not all young men. although they are majority there are elders women and children too. Human Rights, are there any? .Theres a French law to protect people, that are sleeping rough in Winter in France. When temperatures fall below freezing, if there is high winds, or heavy rain the law says they should be accomodated. But the authorities only provided in Calais space for 200 people, and what was that "accomodation" exactly? For men, an abandoned industrial warehouse, unheated with some tents in it that the men were expected to share with others. For women and children, metal haluage containers with beds in WITH NO HEATING. Temperatures regularly were below freezing as low as minus 6 biting winds and if it wasnt snowing it was lashing rain. Can you please see what the authorities are doing, they are not fulfilling their obligations, and they are not offering suitable accomodation. In Dunkirk, where the mayor is slighty friendlier to refugees, there was a heated gym provided. Gym probably had a few hundred people in it. It was wam, it smelled like a lot of people jammed together, Just blankets in rows on the floor, rows and rows. A coworker said that a few nights before when it was minus 2 there was a woman and 2 kids of hers age 3 and 7 who slept outside they gym as there was no room for them inside, in this kind of instance its up to the grassroots organisations to try to find very vulnerable people like this mum a place, if its posible, for a night. Hypothermia. Yes again its the grassroots workers, who are out checking for symptoms of hypothermia and getting these people to hospital, if one takes a refugee to hospital one risks fine or losing your licence or even "people trafficking" offences. But thank god, volunteers are more than willing to take a risk of points on their licence or a fine, to get an individual to hospital. Read here what the French PM says... Help Refugees https://helprefugees.org/emergency-accommodation-failing-vulnerable “I do not want to have men and women on the streets, in the woods. I want emergency accommodations everywhere,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in July 2017. He set the end of the year as his target. While local authorities did open shelters for the homeless populations, in line with Macron’s pledges, the majority of displaced people are still sleeping outside with no shelter from the elements. They are subject to harsher realities than you or I could ever imagine." There are 1,000+ refugees — including 200 children — living rough on the streets and in wooded areas around Calais and Dunkirk. Only a small percentage are provided with accommodation and it is not offered every night, let alone throughout the whole of Winter "A snowy day was the first time the emergency accommodation centres opened. There are two centres in total; one takes in women and children, and the other is for men only. After several weeks of increasingly cold weather, it was only after L’Auberge des Migrants and Help Refugees spent the day applying pressure to the local prefecture that Calais city authorities decided to open these two centres. Men, women, children, the elderly and the sick; they all woke up that day after spending the night sleeping outside and they woke up covered in snow. It took that long, and some persuading, for action to be taken." So for starters, the French Authorities are not fulfilling their obligationsand the PMs words ring hollow.Was that a threat or a promise "no homless on the Streets by the end of the year, and all the accomodation centres he spoke of? Where are they? When the few accomodation centres opened many queued for the buses to go there, but when they saw the reality of the offering, firstly there wasnt enough space for everyone and then some atually chose to go out back to the Woods and streets, i guess there they can light a fire. you cannot light a fire in a haulage container ... you would die of smoke in halation. What a choice to make , a measly offering or being out in the Woodland or wasteground where you can chance a fire but are liable to be "evicted" at any moment by the pólice. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/24/france-inquiry-finds-police-abused-migrants-calais. The reality is that the CRS riot pólice are on regular basis taking blankets and tents , , pepper spraying and using rubber bullets. For example read this in full or just the exceprt i copy... Thursday 25th January was a dark day for Calais. A 16 years old Eritrean teenager was very seriously injured: he was shot in the face with a gas grenade, he lost an eye and his nose has gone inside his skull. He is at risk of losing the other eye and has multiple skull fractures. The police arrested his two friends who had gone to the police station to testify, but later they were released. The boy was shot during the attack with gas and rubber bullets against refugees who were trying to recuperate their possessions before the CRS destroys their tents set up near the food distribution place in rue Verrotieres. The police destroyed everything under the eyes of refugees and volunteers and lots of gas and rubber bullets were fired to disperse the crowd. The gas attack involved all the food distribution area. Four migrant people were taken to the hospital. The attack can be seen in the video dffused by the Auberge des Migrants. It is unbelievable that the president of France had praised the behaviour of police in Calais and threatened to prosecute anyone who accuse the police of being violent ‘without a proof’. I think Mr Macron should instead condemn and explain the extreme violence from the police who shot the Eritrean 16 years old boy in the face and critically injured him. https://freedomnews.org.uk/calais-border-news-after-the-may-macron-summit fore more information from Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/24/france-inquiry-finds-police-abused-migrants-calais. What was I doing while volunteering this time. Volunteers were a bit short most days excpet for a few days when a load of students turned up from a Universtiy of New York. In the mornings I worked in the kitchen, Cutting up bread to got out with soup for mid morning hot soup, cutting lots of onions, garlic, salad, , the kitcen smeells great and is a great place to chat with the varied and wonderful volunteers, Ive got to say you meet amazing and interesting people in the kitchen and warehouse. Its very enlightening to see that human beings are capable of doign so much given some autonomy, responsibility and working from the heart. In the afternoons I worked in the warehouse, where there were very few people, sorting clothes ... looking out for the much wanted size small black joggers and hoodies, and clean new mens underpants and socks. You wont see a bigger smile on my face when I open a box of small black joggers! Or my distaste at opening a carrier bag of dirty pants and socks. yes, really. Always in the warehouse, music, new faces and old, hugs, people trying to organise ready for distribution. Some meetings, lots of tea and coffee and good food ... free lunch and constant tea station. I went out just twice doing food distrubution. Once to Calais and once to Dunkirk in two locations, once at the gym and the other by a lake where theres some woods, pretty for a walk but not to live in. Looking around the industrial wasteground where we give the food in Calais, under a big electicity pylon, seagulls flying around, grey skies, assorted tents tucked in corners of fences and tres, with snow on. The guys have a small fire burning. They must be absolutely freezing. All the time. And wet, all the time. Un believeable , that people are living like this. We dish out the food, some of the guys sit in the van to have a place to sit, theres actually nowhere to sit, they sit on the ground to eat. Some of them look really really yyoung ... like about 16. Its just ... awful. Those lads, looking for a safe place. Being treated in Europe worse than Factory farm animals. Change in policy... While Im there the French Gvmt say they are going to start to feed people. RCK agree to back off and not serve food for a few days to allow the authrities to fulfill their obligations and feed people for the frst time there ever, Where has this come from? Just a year ago the Major of Calais wanted to make it ilegal to feed refugees there, , that was taken to court immediately and the courrt said no, not posible, and the RCK continued to feed but from limited chosen spaces. Then the major of Calais tried to close down the kitchen by bringing in the health and safety inspectors. They said it was not hygeinic enough, although it appears its ok to have people living in the Woods with no higiene human rights nor safety and being teargassed... and so RCK pulled it off, did a 30000 GBP renovvation or something of that cost, which was necessary to"bring it up to standard". A spanking new fully fittend wonderful shiny kitchen with loads of hot wáter and storage and super bloody amazing. So, the first day of food distribution by La ie Activ... The government paid workers who were to do the food, They set up the food distribution in a place that was surrounded by razor wire,with a closing door, so it looked like a pen, with about 200 journalists there, and loads of CRS pólice there too. Not very appetizing. Only ONE person took his breakfast. Over the next few days, they improved the conditions, went to a friendlier place , sent away the journalists, snet a Little further away the CRS. However, still very low uptake of food. Consider, would you take frood from the very same source that was pepperspraying you, stealing your blanket, shooting a 16 year old in the face. no, most likely you would not eat from the hand of the abuser. Two or three days into the food distribution being attempted by the government, the place i wrote of above, where RCK used to distribute food, with the tents and the electricity pylon, that space of tents was "evacuated" , ie the tents and belongings taken, About a kilometre away from where they are trying to serve food. So the government of france have an intersting conundrum, they cannot serve food, without having the TRUST of the people they feed. This situation was back in March, after 4 days wait, RCK started again to offer a evening meal service, becuase it was darn cold and people were going hungry. This is the update from RCK on 19 March...."We resumed evening hot food service in Calais after not serving for 4 days. We suspended our service in order to encourage the uptake of new hot food distributions by La Vie Active (LVA), which were the result of the overdue decision by the French Government to engage with a daily meal service for displaced peoples in the region. In the early days there was little to no attendance at LVA food distributions, so we started to complement their offering with hot food and tea in the evenings. The reason people were not coming was mostly down to trust and safety issues, as people saw LVA as the same as the government sanctioned police who show daily aggression and hostility towards them. There is now slightly more uptake of their food offering (breakfast + lunch). We commend LVA for adapting their distribution techniques, serving outside of the compound and reaching out to the different areas and communities, it seems to be working slowly. We will continue with Calais evening service (600-650 portions), Dunkirk daily (300-400) and outreach in London (200-250 portions per week). Our wonderful volunteers and chefs are working hard to make nutrient rich, colourful food. Our dishes are made with huge amounts of love and creativity and we’ve taken the rainbow diet concept to next level with a rainbow bulb in one of our extractors hoods!" It really would be wonderful to see the French Authorites fulfilling all of their reponsibilities. We wait and see... Meanwhile.... "A few hours before his death, Abdullah Dilsouz was playing cricket with other child refugees in the wasteland behind the port of Calais. Friends said he was excited to be nearing the end of a long journey from Afghanistan, and optimistic that he would soon be able to join his brother in London. But the 15-year-old was run over by a refrigeration truck on 22 December – one of three asylum-seekers to be killed on the roads outside the port in the past month. A fourth has been seriously injured and remains in a coma in hospital and on Sunday night an Iraqi refugee had his legs severed by a train near Dunkirk." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/16/england-seemed-so-close-refugee-15-crushed-to-death-by-calais-lorry to read the full article. https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/deaths-at-the-calais-border/ For a list of all the reported deaths at the Calais border read that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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the pucture first lioksclike some rubbish. but its a place where someone was sleeping, after the snow melted. Calais France October 2017 Making food for displaced people for RCK...and Thai Massage for some long term volunteers.I had not been to Calais since February 2017. Now it has changed a lot, there are less people working in the warehouse, much fewer, a year ago maybe there were 200, now there are 20 or 30 or so, and its half term so usually that bumps the numbers of volunteers up. But there were about 20 people working in the warehouse during this week and it wa all hands on deck in the kitchen most of the time.
There are way fewer donations and much more work to do. The situation has not "gone away" .. theres 800 people need feeding in Calais today. and about the same figure or more in Dunkirk. The RCK Refugee Community Kitchen, cooks for both these areas. Thats an awful lot of food prep to do every day. The warehouse is quieter, calmer, but the situation for the refugees is really terrible. Worse, than when the Jungle was there. I wouldnt have thought it could have been worse than that. Then in "Jungle" there were at least places to worship, to charge a phone, fixed places for food and information. Now, just sleeping rough outside, with maybe a blanket. Friends did ask me ..."Why are you going? Isn't it all finished?". No, its not finished, the press want you to think its finished, the Major of Calais is doing her darndest to make it as miserable for any refugee there as possible, so they all leave, but just now in Calais there are at least 800 people, mostly young men, youngest age nine. Mostly teenagers, They are wanting to go to the UK and for about 15 years this has been a vaguely possible route through which they can get to UK at risk of life and limb. There are more people in Dunkirk too, no camp there since it burnt down, more women and families there, with kids. They can hardly go back the way they came. Calais is bad, Paris is bad. Police harrassment is very bad, on 23 November a report from Human rights watch in conjuction with an independent police review, said the police level of agresssion is extreme, especially against children. if they want to claim asylum in France , they cant cos to do so the'yve got to get to Lille and the moment they are seen on a train they are thrown off. Catch 22. Now, in Calais there is NO infrastucture like the Jungle was. They are basically sleeping in the woods, without tents or blankets, if they have a blanket the police might pepperspray them , in which case they cant keep the blanket, or their jacket, cos it will be tainted with the crystals which continue to irritate, ditto for any clothing. Or they have a blanket which the police "confiscate" in the name of "eviction". So theres a lot of very wet cold lads out there. The weather is grim, cold, blustery strong winds, heavy rain, very very damp. They are lucky if they have a tarp to sleep under. Some have trenchfoot a lot athlete foot. I couldnt imagine sleeping and actually surviving out even one night in that weather. ]From the warehouse is sent a van from which phones can be charged, some information about asylum processes, some dry clothes. I hear a bus arrived this week for some educational sessions. What did I do there?I mostly helped in the warehouse, chopping a hell of a lot of onions garlic and leeks. The RCK kitchen is serving about 2500 meals a day, thats 2 servings, lunch, soup and bread and a later meal of rice and curry type bean thing. These meals are served out of the back of a van in Calais and Dunkirk. There have recently been installed a few portaloos and a water tap, by the authorities but nothing like what is needed. All necessities they have ar provided from the warehouse, and are from donations, All good things go out... smiles and some pleasant human contact. On distribution the volunteers play music and sometimes a game of footie happens, Now and then a dance off. Always smiles. The refugee lads offer cold volunteers their food. Their culture is sharing. One of the volunteers is always giving his jacket away, theres not enough clothes for everyone. Distribution of clothes, loo roll, shampoo, toothpaste, etc is also done from the big grey warehouse. There are not enough clothes to keep these guys warm. The big sizes are given out now so they can layer up at night. Needed very much are small and medium mens pants and socks, waterproof jackets small and medium and small and medium mens joggers. They like dark colours becuase then they are not seen by the . In Paris refugees sleeping on the street are woken every 2 hours by the police. This is tantamount to "torture" I am told by a human rights worker im staying with. In the warehouse theres plenty of jobs to do, but most hands are on cooking, as theres not enough people to do all the food. So sometimes clothes are not getting sorted and tents are not being checked. Priorities are made, theres lots to do. Youll never be bored, Good conversations too. A bunch of tents were donated on the day I arrive, but they are not given out... cruel you may think. Well the tents are being saved till later when its way colder, cos if they give them out now the cops will slash them in the name of "evicition" and they are useless. So its a pretty grim situation. Lets see if when it gets colder the "evictions" are so regular. How is a day in the warehouse? start about 9am, finish around 6pm, its quite hard work but you can find a job that suits you. You can have a tea break whenever you need. You will get a free lunch and usually some croissants in the morning. Slightly stale perhaps. Lunch is delicious, if you like beans. I give some treatments of Thai Yoga Massage to 8 of the longer term volunteers and one guy who was working very hard in the kitchen. I work on them for only 45 minutes, they don't want to, or can't give me longer. I work on them on the floor of an old dusty office, where Ive made a little nest of cardboard on the concrete floor then some small blankets on top. then I watch their faces as I massage them, and see how young they are, and think about the responsibility that they are carrying. Some of these volunteers have been here for long stretches, over a year. They are the most awesome human beings you can meet. Its an honour to offer them a bit of Metta, loving kindness. I do not do any distributions this visit. Distribution of food clothing and toiletries is done out of the back of vans, as theres no fixed point they can work from. So everything has to be loaded up, taken out and given out in the most fair and dignified way possible. Distributing food one needs to be chirpy and friendly and smile a lot, and you receive a lot of smiles back too, but seeing those lads, after they have had their food, just wandering back into the woods for the night, while you are off to a warm bed, can leave you feeling pretty blessed, depresessed and or very sad or just plain lucky. I guess if you are here longer you find your ways to deal with that. Is it scary volunteering here? Some folks I know say they are scared to go. I give a resounding NO. All that there is to be scared of in the warehouse is hard work, and you can always go for a cuppa tea or coffee if you need a break. Nobodys gonna shout at you for taking a break, more likely to suggest you take a day off if you haven't had your 2 days off a week to keep you productive and sane. I work in the warehouse with mostly 20 somethings, but also some people way older than me. A right mix. English, Spanish, Scottish, French. Some 17 year olds with special dispensation to be here, and all from different walks of life, students and lawyers, builders, anarchists, Canadians, Catholics, Muslims, teachers, students, a doctor, a civil servant, a fashion shop worker, a writer, a chef, a nurse, and more, and me, a yoga teacher. How badly the Calais Major does NOT want any refugees here, This year, she wanted to stop food distrubutions, to make it illegal to feed people. The grassroots organisations took that to court and the court decreed that it IS legal to feed people. The costs of the policing are high. There are 3 CRS *riot police to every refugee, A cost of one CRS policeperson a day is 330 euros. Thats tax payers money. I hear its UK tax payers money? The Calais Major has called volunteers" people with nothing better to do", and also amusingly has accused us of taking advantage of vunlerable people. Id laugh if i didnt choke. Well for sure I cant think of anyhing much better to do than give our time and money to help individuals who are having such an goddawful time in France right now. These refugees are survivors, they are teenagers and women and kids and men, people with dreams and hopes for peace, who have fled violence and terrorism. Can you imagine a 20 year old lad you know, imagine him now with one one or both of his parents dead, imagine him 5000 miles from home having walked part cross the Sahara where his best mates died beside him. Hungry and sleeping in a field with no tent at 4 degrees with pissing rain. And they complain that Glastonbury was intense. There are more people moving across Europe now than in the Second World War, people, running from horrible situations, war, starvation, terrorism. These people now, in Europe, are not allowed to work, not allowed to go to school, not allowed to study, not allowed to sleep in a shelter, not provided by any authorities with food and drinking water, not able to shower. If you took one of them in your car you would be committing a crime of people smuggling, if you took one of these people, if he had toothache, into town to see a dentist, you would be commiting a crime. Its too reminiscent, we have seen this dehumaniation of sections of people before, in living memory, and said, never again. My plea...If you are in the UK, find a free day or weekend, and want to do something adventurous and fun and useful, please go to Calais and help in the warehouse, I can help you find out about acomodation and answer all your questions though the contact form. You will never regret going there, and you will for sure make a few friends and learn a lot, and have a great veggie lunch, I swear that you never ever ever end up saying oh wow, that Calais thing, that was a waste of time. You are going to help one persons life be so much better by whatever you do there, whether its sorting pairs of socks, to stirring a huge vat of rice......and you might get stronger, fitter, have a crash course in politics, and learn more than you thought possible in 24 hours. Its gotta be better weekend than a crappy movie and a pizza. Cost probably about the same. If you got any questions, write me on the contact tab. CHOOSE LOVE. Since I first volunteered with helping refugees in Alais and Dunkifk in France, i try to do regular fundraisers....so now and then, I have a "Chai Day" at my place. To raise money for the Refugee Community Kitchen . Yes there are still refugees there since the camp was demolished.. People come for an afternoon Chai Day, hanging out, with families and freinds, We bake cakes and I make chai, and folks give about 50 cents for a chai and 1 or 2 euros for a slice of homemade cake, or some other food. Thats basically how I raise the money. Everyone has a nice time. Usually also have a flea market with all our unwanted stuff especially clothes, so all the clothes gets sold and recycled. Some days friends have brought instruments and we've sung, we've had games and a kids mini disco, every time something different. Narayani Baker and Matt come for their amazing belting Kirtan singing. Theres been face painting and art workshops.... Usually it makes about 200 to 500 euros for the Kitchen in Calais. Which is amazing because nobody has got much money here. Lots of people come as its a nice way to hang out in a beautiful natural space and chat and its a nice family kind of day. If you got any ideas to do your ownm go on! Even if you raise say 25 euros/pounds thats really really helpful. For whatever cause you wish. Above is a few pix from my last chai day Sept 2017 Aziza's not so secret Chai recipe
This recipe comes from a freind in India from some years ago. Andy's secret chai recipe.. I love a cuppa chai beore i do yoga or go walking so I make my own in my room/guesthouse. Locally buy a tin tea cup and a dodgy water heater for about one or two euro. You can plug the heater in, like a kettle element without the kettle around it. You put your tea water and spices in the cup, add water, stick in the heater, boil it up, Remember not to touch the cup, add powdered milk and that brick like indian sugar that I cant remember what its called, panela in south america? Theres your morning chai, just a degree of danger from the electrics.... yum vegan lemon cake with lemons from the local trees
qbove Some jellyfish the kids made in the cafe add a touch of colour. Names have been changed. I kept a diary each night, hers just a few stories of people I met in Hope Cafe Athens this summer, you make like to read to get a hang on the normality of folks, and their abnormal situations. A boys 16th Birthday in the cafe his parents cannot speak or hear, they sign. He does most of the translating for the whole family. He has a few brothers and sisters. Kid party chaos, some cake, paper streamers, a funny birthday hat appears, balloons too. I give him a large packet of crisps and his smile is huge. He is made up, his parents too. During playing with the streamers, a pigeon flies into the cafe, The kids try to catch it, it starts to panic. Ends up on top of the ovens, high. The big Syrian cook tells the kids off for freaking out the bird, he tries to catch it, calmly, super slow. The bird makes a break and flies out of the open windows, Trapped for 30 seconds, in a place it didnt want to be, then free. How poignant. Everyone immediately forgot and continued having fun. Oh, Id like to mention the "Jungle" in Calais France and none of the refugees knows it. Its certainly not where anyones heading for! Lana lives in a flat with a Greek family She has one Friend from Spain who writes to here every day. I can see how much this means to her.She is kinda stuck in Athens, Not much hope to get out. She has 4 children. I guess shes in her late 30s or early 40s but im not sure. Her kids are all under 20 and they are in 2 different countries. She does not say if or how she hopes to see them again. She looks tired. Always with a smile. A man shows me photos of Syria, its beautiful, and people hugging and smiling in the photos... he says as we go through the pictures, "my brother in law, dead, my cousin, hes dead." Bob, from Syria was in Idomini in Greece for 4 months and asks me if I know of that place, I do, not pleasant stories. He is 17 now, he was 16 then, He tells me matter of factly that he cried a lot when he was there, and he was afraid when there was fighting, and there was a lot of fighting, and he was alone, scared and not able to sleep. He was not with his parents or any adults. Im sorry seems inadequate as a response. He waits for reunification with his family in another place.... He says he hopes in 2 months. I hope so too. A thin young man comes to get baby things, his wife due to give birth tomorrow in hospital. Hes quiet and says he doesnt feel well, Through translator if find he has a congenital heart problem since childhood, he was then shot by a bullet that came through another guy, who it killed , and into his chest, and shows me the bullet entry point scar just below his shoulder blade. A doctor says he must not excert himself. Its 50 degrees outside in the street, and he has to travel to the hospital by public transport and look after his family. He was told, to walk very slowly upstairs. Apparently the authorities say they can go to Ireland after his baby is born, jeez, why not before? Another lad, looks about 17, in the cafe every day...volunteering, translating for the regular stuff, eg, baby coming, people just arrived from the islands, elderly parents sick, scabies, papers required. All day he translates these stories. With a smile. Sometimes he feels ill. He tells me he was in Moria, on Lesbos. He shows me a doctors diagonosis, it says he suffers from "psychological trauma", who wouldnt ... he is a sweet fun guy and good to have working here. A teenager. A tourist family from Sweden come in to offer their baby clothes to the cafe before they leave. They were staying near the cafe. A family from Switzerland turn up with 4 rangy blonde kids who pay and cuddle and amuse the little ones in the cafe. They bring art materials. They seem like they have done this before, They are hardly in their teens. They are with their parents. Chopping veg for lunch with Afghani woman. courgettes lined up for us to chop... she says lightly "ahh it reminds me of Afghanistan, every day the woman and children killed they lay like this" and gestures at the courgettes. On my first day..."Where are you from" I ask smiling. "Alleppo" is the answer... what can i say? Nappies pyjamas and clolthes given for a mum giving birth in hospital, The dad collects it all and smokes nervously while he waits outside for me to gather what I can from the donations. A small smile at last when I say "I hope you have a beautiful baby" in universal sign language. I share a room with 2 lovely young funny Fnnish girls. Before bed on enight they show me a video of a young Iraqui man just about to be deported from his cell in Finland and be sent back to Iraq. Then they show me a picture of 2 minature hairless dogs to cheer me up. I laugh, but its kinda sad to see a dog with no hair too. When I leave I buy everyone icecreams and i get ots of kisses, handshakes smiles nods and thankyous, and the hands held on the heart. I leave, they cant, One lad made me a beautiful friendship bracelet, I think about how he must miss hugs from his mum and dad. Hes made me smile and laugh a lot. I can leave. They cannot. Hope cafe gives more than HOPE and food, it is a place of a bit of normality, and that it keeps going is in the hands of volunteers and donors, it does NOT receive any funding. Kerrie, the organiser simply does not know when the money will come in. Make it happen, you can....Go to the facebook page to give something. Even 5 quid makes so much difference. https://www.facebook.com/soulfoodforrefugees/ A small grassroots run cafe in Central Athens providing about 250 meals a day both to refugees, and homeless Greek people, in fact anyone who wants it, and a free small shop of clothes and toiletries, for refugees who live in the area of town where they are based. Monday is buzzing with mamas and babies as its "nappy day" we served 250 filling healthy veggie meals and about 400 cold frappe coffees. Its more than that its a place for people to sit in a nearly "normal" cafe and have a chat and sit and eat with family and friends. Indeed it is a place of HOPE. www.facebook.com/soulfoodforrefugees/ Im sure hardly any of the 60000 refugees in Greece planned for this to be their dream or ultimate destination. One of the young translators waits for reunification with his family who he has not seen in years, another woman working there has 4 children who are all in Germany, of course she wants to join them. Many stories of split families and I dont know what their outcomes will be. Athens authorities seem quite accommodating considering Greece is bankrupt.. Refugees have free public transport, if they have papers, But I heard of a boy being thrown off a bus because he couldnt "prove" He was Syrian. Apparently the "squats" have not had their water and electricity supplies cut off. Seems theres a lot of heart in Greece. The whole deai is run by an amazing Englush woman Kerrie Moore who spent a short time volunteering in Lesbos....and so moved by that she packed up and moved to Athens, without at that time speaking Greek. And set up this small cafe as her back bedroom was seeming a bit inadequate. It's been open properly for a few months and is a wonderful friendly space, well used. But very much in need of continuous donations to keep running. Volunteers and donations welcome. See below the current needs list. A list of current and ongoing needs. If you want to donate go to the facebook Hope Cafe. OR GO HERE https://www.gofundme.com/Kerrielesvosgreece The artwork of some of the children decorates the walls The hot little space at Hope Cafe where the free lunches are prepated. It is staffed ny a mix of refugees and volunteers..
Kerrie Moore the founder writes this about the cafe..."Kerrie Moor . I live in worcester with my husband and 3 boys. Last December I left my home after seeing the horrific photos of the little boy Aylan washed up on Bodrum beach and went to volunteer for a month on Lesvos Island in Greece. I worked with a then grassroots organisation ,Better Days For Moria. We established an 800 person capacity camp on an Olive Grove at the side of the Islands Hotspot from scratch. Thousands of hungry refugees were fed, cared for and supplied with everything they needed before they continued their journey towards the Baltic Route most of them heading for the security Europe offered. On March the 18th an agreement between the EU and Turkey was made which changed the face of every refugees future. Many that arrived after the 20th March are still there. While governments continue to support Assads bombing of children and infrastructure in Syria..its volunteers that ensure they feel loved and cared for. Their needs are not met by Greece and NGOs continue to do a terrible job of fulfilling basic necessities like shelter, warmth and food. Camps in Greece are basic , many contain caravans, rooms constructed in warehouses and tents outside in the open. volunteers support is vital to the refugees survival. we are the ones that top up food supplies, provide blankets clothes utensils and equipment for them to live a very basic life. Voluneers online co ordinate aid into Greece from all corners of the world from wheelchairs to kettles. There is a network of groups online that work together in the way no NGOs do. And we are all self funded so you can be sure that every penny of your donation goes direct to help refugees. I created an online group called No Them Only Us Refugees and displaced person Support on Facebook which now has 3000 members. I daily share news updates relating to this crisis , Network to build strong alliances with other groups and individuals ,provide support to refugees who have a specific need whether that is a sim card, new baby clothes, milk nappies or a prosthetic leg even a Major Emergency Operation that UNHCR have refused to support due to a low chance of survival in the patient during surgery. Ive created groups that have achieved amazing results..most recently a skull repair to a small boy whose roof collapsing taking him with it when a bomb exploded on his home. Hes now recovering well. A baby with Kidney disease, A single mother with a Brain Tumour still ongoing and a mother just through the Syrian border with Terminal cancer trying to reunite with her kids so they can have quality time before she passes. These cases all need money . Every penny is spent as quickly as it comes..its vital and it saves lives. Refugees are not terrorists...they are not crouds of single men hunting for wives as the news reports. They are families like us, who have lost everything including children,brothers,husbands. they keep their strength because they have no choice..we must support them to keep their hopes alive... We should all put ourselves in their shoes..instead of judging because we think we know what Syria was like. it was alot more like Europe than you think.Mixed religions and cultures living together successfuly. I pray they get it back one day. My online group is growing rapidly ive taken on 10 Admin supporters and we are changing peoples lives,it's due to all the wonderful warm hearts of you our supporters spreading the word and showing your support regularly Let's stand for Peace and show some love to those who have forgotten what it is <3 This poem, by a refugee, says all that could be said.
HomeWarsan Shire no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well your neighbors running faster than you breath bloody in their throats the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory is holding a gun bigger than his body you only leave home when home won’t let you stay. no one leaves home unless home chases you fire under feet hot blood in your belly it’s not something you ever thought of doing until the blade burnt threats into your neck and even then you carried the anthem under your breath only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets sobbing as each mouthful of paper made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back. you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land no one burns their palms under trains beneath carriages no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled means something more than journey. no one crawls under fences no one wants to be beaten pitied no one chooses refugee camps or strip searches where your body is left aching or prison, because prison is safer than a city of fire and one prison guard in the night is better than a truckload of men who look like your father no one could take it no one could stomach it no one skin would be tough enough the go home blacks refugees dirty immigrants asylum seekers sucking our country dry niggers with their hands out they smell strange savage messed up their country and now they want to mess ours up how do the words the dirty looks roll off your backs maybe because the blow is softer than a limb torn off or the words are more tender than fourteen men between your legs or the insults are easier to swallow than rubble than bone than your child body in pieces. i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore unless home told you to quicken your legs leave your clothes behind crawl through the desert wade through the oceans drown save be hunger beg forget pride your survival is more important no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear saying- leave, run away from me now i dont know what i’ve become but i know that anywhere is safer than here n 2016, just after my dear Father's funeral, I went to volunteer for the first time at the Auberge Warehouse where the Refugee Community Kitchen is, just outside of , and serving "The Jungle" in Calais and the notoriously hideous place called simply "Dunkirk" camp, both camps for refugees from many places, Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Oromo, Iraq, Kurdistan, and many more places, some of which Id never heard of until I went to volunteer. It was freezing cold, i was staying on the warehouse site in an unheated caravan, but as soon as I had an opportunity to go and work "in camp" I did not want to complain of the cold or my conditions, because , I saw some really really godawful situations that people, were living in, in the mud, in the cold, in tents, in broken tents, in randomly made structures. Despite the best efforts of the "Build Team" who were really doing wonders with few skills and not much materials, trying to make "homes" out of wood and ply. For the lucky ones. In Dunkirk camp the mud was knee deep, tents were sinking in the mud, it snowed, some nights it was minus ten. The police were not letting volunteers take in pallet wood of over 30 cm, not tents nor even sometimes bread. I was completley shell shocked. This is France, in 2016, right opposite a nice housing estate, and just 30k from England. In the housing estate on one side of the road a guy washes his car outside his nice house, on the other side of the road live families in a sea of mud in broken tents. The sea is the barrier. People come to France wanting to get to the UK, if they dont want to go somewhere else. Its a small proportion of refugees come to Calais, maybe they have family in UK, they speak English, they lived there before, they believe there is Human Rights in the UK. Many stories and many reasons, I never met anyone saying they want to go to the uk becuase there are easy benefit monies. They want peace, they are fleeing their homes, they love their countries, but they couldnt stay. I had decided to go when i had looked on the site Rio2Rome on a return flight from Ecuador, to visit my Dad in the UK, for what I kind of knew in my heart was going to be a last visit to him, despite the protestations of family that he was "fine". He passed away. His funeral, a Lovely Man. I felt useless, that I hadnt helped him more and I wanted to help someone, somehow. Greif sent me, guilt sent me. To Calais. I went, because it was so near to where my dear old Mum lives in affluent Surrey in South East England. THIRTY kilometres between affluence and effluence. And for what reason these people were living in such terrible conditions, Because they fled their homes when war came, when opression came, crossed borders and traveled in leaky dangerous boats to cross the dangerous Mediterranean sea, to come to Europe in search of PEACE and Human Rights. These 2 things were not visible in the Calais and Dunkirk camps in France. I spent about 7 weeks In Calais over a year from February 2016 to February, 2017 was my last visit. Ill go again October 2017. Volunteering at the warehouse, and working a bit in the Camps. I learned more in that time about human rights, politics, and human strength, human darkness and also of light and compassion. I learned more than i wanted to learn. It changed me, It politicised me, it galvanised me to become more of "a humanitarian worker" or maybe you could call me an "activist"... I usually associate "activist" with "angry" and thats what I was. I can tell you a lot of stories , but Im not going to. I will refer you to a few videos on You Tube and Maybe later ill tell you more. Its absolutely hideous how people, men, women and children, are being treated by the CRS , ie the French Riot Police, and this situation is not getting any smaller or better for anyone. SInce the Jungle camp was demolished its worse ... there arent any factilites, toilets, taps, drinking water, places to get food. People live now in the woods. What I saw made me see that if theres no Human RIghts for Refugees, then there are no human rights for anyone in Europe",and I saw clearly that many polititians in power simply dont care about human life, and simultaneously, I saw that, working together, volunteers can do all the things that politicians cant, ie feed people, give shelter, to help to build places of worship and nost importantly treat refugee people with DIGNITY. There were NO NGOs there, only MSF, Medecine Sin Frontiers. Thats it. People working together from their hearts can do anything, build anything... without management structures and heirarchies, people can do really amazing stuff together. I met volunteers from all walks of life, from catwalk models to students of politics, from seasoned activists, to gypsy travellers, from Christians to Muslims to Buddhists to Anarchists, I met 18 year olds running sections in the warehouse and people who were so brave and strong that they made me feel pathetic. The refugees that I met, in camp, what to say. It sometimes felt wierdly like being in a kind of really crappy "shanty village" with young lads coming up on bicycles and saying "hi where are you from" and then to other guys asking me into their shelters for tea and treating me like a royalty or something and finding me hot tea and making me food, and worrying about how cold i was and giving me a scarf, and although i was filthy from working on site, giving me a clean folded cream blanket to sit on. A few restaurants made of plywood showing romantic musicals and guys charging their phones and sleeping in there, The smell of flat bread. A few stinking portaloos. The classes I taught in "Jungle Books" were chaos, starting with a couple of same ish level students after 30 mins i had a group of 20 lads packed in there all asking me questions and helping each other and giving me their notebooks to write in which took ages. Some speaking perfect English others hardly could say Hello, it was a hell of a lot of fun and hard work and really it was kinda like entertainment for them, and I got lots of smiles. That made it all worthwhile. And laughter, There was a good woodburner in Jungle books little structure so it was quite toasty. It got full on cold days. Some refugees english notebooks were like art, can you imagine learning Arabic, the alphabet, the shapes, and seeing meticulously kept notebooks with Arabic on one side and carefully slowly drawn English on the other. Then other students, who spoke probably better Englsih than me. One lad wanted me to lend him a book on Quantum Healing, I didn have one , but i gave him my Ekhart Tolle book as it was all I had. Some people had been there for days, others for a year, and some had been on the journey , for years. ' Well, I was there for the "Eviction of the South Side", for a big fire, for a big fight, sending out sleeping bags and torn up towels, and emergency clothes and toiletries, and in my last visit, i was there for "The Final Eviction"..... each of these moments could fill books. I am not a writer, and I did not take photos there. For reasons of the privacy and legal rights of the refugees. I will later post some links to videos and photos. and I will write some more... when i can. But in a way thats all old news. The Jungle is finished, and now theres at least up to 1000 people living rough in the area, without even the facilities of a tap. Living not even with tents nor sleeping bags. And if they have those things the CRS sometimes take them as "rubbish" and destroy the few posessions. The authorities were taken to court and told they had to provide water and shower, but they havent done that yet. Its grim. It seems the only people capable of doing anything useful there or in Greece or anywhere are the grassroots organisations. This shows me how absolutely amazing people are when they put their hearts together and want to do something becuase they want to do something. Human beings can make amazing stuff happen. I came back changed from Calais, and I would never make anything otherwise. I continue to help in small ways. Jungle is history now. That wasteland is now silent. The fires, the tea, the distrubution points, the little shacks, all gone. And the people, the ten thousand inhabitants? What of them? Where are they tonight? If you have any specific questions, ask me on the contact form. BaHere are some photos, not mine, because I did not take a camera into this place, out of respecting the dignity of the people there. This is France in 2016. Take a look. People lived here. Refugees, people fleeing war, opression, horrors, They were, and are still looking for a safe place in Europe, where they believed there was Human Rights.
Now the Jungle is demolished. These people are somewhere else. scattered around. I wish they are somewhere safe. At least here in the Jungle, there were places to get a plate of hot food, a cold water tap to wash in, some places to worship, to charge phones, and to rest. There were places they could go on certain days to get a pair of socks or a bar of soap. None of that was provided by the French or English governments, Not one plate of rice was provided by governments. It was all, the buildings, the tarps, the wood, the food, provided by volunteers. Only MSF, Medicine Sin Frontieres, they had a small caravan for first aid. Coughs, burns, teargas, baton injuries from police, broken arms legs and fingers, scabies. Babies and young lone people...many many young men, who should be in uni or having fun with their friends or falling in love for the first time, The age of my freinds teenage boys. . In early 2016 I went for the first time to help at the Calais Jungle and worked at the Refugee Community Kitchen which is sharing space in the Auberge warehouse, and also spent some time in the Jungle Books teaching space, and also a lot of clothes sorting, cleaning up in camp, sorting toiletries, food distrubution in camp, clothes distribution and more. I volunteered for about 7 weeks through 2016 and my last visit was Feb 2017.
Basically theres a huge warehouse full of shelves, where incoming food, clothes tents etc are sorted and stored. Outside was some space for lorries to manouver, lots of mud when it rained. Also outside the warehouse, a caravan site, like a travellers site, where volunteers could stay, no luxuries. Portaloos and one shower. For about 50 people plus. And then in one corner of the warehouse was a small kitchen space full of action from about 7.30 am onwards, where through some magic hundreds and hundreds of meals are still provided daily, without fail. Its set up like a kitchen might be in a festival, huge pots, gas burners, a big stand for chopping veg, a washing up station, all functional but pretty unbelievable how many meals got made here a day. I got to tell you the food was delicious, I know because volunteers at the warehouse get one hot meal a day , the same food as the refugees. The beings who worked here as long term volunteers were some of the most inspirational folks I have seen in my life. My greatest respect to them. They worked so hard, knew so much, and love so hard. I learned more in and around that warehouse than Id have learned in 5 years at any university. I saw here, that people working together, from the heart, can do great things. Things that no government could do, nor wanted to do. Heres a report from RCK from 1 Dec 2016; which tells a lot of useful info. I hope Steve Bedlam you dont mind me sharing in the interests of raising awareness. "One year ago today RCK served its very 1st meals to the refugee’s and volunteers living and working in the refugee camp in Calais, France called ‘The Jungle’. Our 1st day we served 500 hot and healthy meals, on the menu that day was, Rice, Dahl, Salad and fresh fruit and bread and a drink. All produced from donated food from the UK and cooked by chefs and volunteers who gave up their normal lives to come and make a difference to others. It was the start of a year that we was not expecting when we decided to help in the growing crisis across the small stretch water in france. We have seen some horrific days whilst on service to both Calais and Dunkirk camps in the past year, what with the police brutality during weekly raids and often random daily tear gassing for no apparent reason to the abhorrent living conditions that the refugees have had to endure since fleeing the various horrors of their own countries, be it wars, dictatorships, hunger, climate change, religious hatred, poverty, sexual harassment or those that are just seeking a better life in the ‘Humane’ west.. Over the year we have seen the RCK kitchen and family change and grow into a beautiful thing. When asked by many what is the main ingredient used in our kitchen, Sam Jones founder and our constant head chef and fixer of all things, answers without the skip of a heartbeat. “LOVE, its in every meal”, Everyone washing up for hours / days and chopping the veg, stirring the pots, serving the food, stacking the shelves, filling the food parcels, sweeping the yard, folding the socks, building the shelters, chopping the wood, distributing the clothes, setting up the distribution systems, installing the water and electrics, sitting with the people in the camps and listening to there stories of how they got here and how they lived before choosing to take the 1st step of a horrific journey that has now brought them here. To a place that none of them ever imagined they would be. To a reception from our Governments that they never knew they would get. Our emphasis has always been to serve food that is healthy, and still we have no compromise there. We would only cook fresh vegetables and only ever serve fresh bread and we always adhered to the cultural cooking rules of the people we were serving. The rare times we served meat is was always Halal, we took care in what went into the food and food parcels that were sent out to show RESPECT for peoples beliefs even when they were not our beliefs. One word soon became the word that was used when thinking of new ways to help the refugees in the camps. The word is DIGNITY. We heard it when chefs were deciding what the next meal would be, in meetings to decide what was going into the food parcels and in the meetings on how the food and clothing was to be distributed, we heard it when we were in the freezing wood workshop where the shelters were being designed and built. This word is everywhere amongst all the volunteer groups . It was on every volunteers mind and in there work. And it showed. In the kitchen and food distribution this word came in the way of kitchens being built and the food that the many various cultures were used to eating. We turned our hot and healthy meals into meals that would not only fill a belly but would excite the mind and the memories of those that were eating it. Spices that may evoke a smile or a taste that would bring back a memory of going to a family dinner or celebration and not always a taste that was liked but a taste that takes you back to a place or time that was your life before this one. In Dunkirk this word was used what designing the communal kitchen spaces and free shops which now allow the residents of the camp to cook their own food with the ingredients that they are used to and to shop daily so they do not have to wait for hand-outs of food that they may not want or know how to cook… One year on and we are still here but now we are hardened to the situation and are in for the long haul. The thousands of people who have been through the amazing warehouse hub ( L’auberge des migrant ) in Calais have now spread across the whole of Europe and beyond to continue their work with refugees and displaced people. So too the present and future of RCK. Right now we are planning and implementing the next stage. We are working with many other NGO’s and volunteer organisations to plan how we can be most effective • We are currently building our mobile kitchen truck and support vehicles and we will be taking this on the road to camps across Europe and who knows, maybe beyond. • We are still supporting the camp in Dunkerque / Grande Synthe with hot and cold food and maintenance of the communal kitchens • We are in talks with groups in Paris where there is a growing need for food security. • We have also brought our skills back home with us to the UK and have been serving food to the homeless on the streets of London and will continue to do this with the hope of having several services a week in the near future. • We are supporting other Grass roots Organisations with our knowledge, skills and funding. Little did we know that when we started this in October 2015 that we would still be here, neither did we expect the kind of support that we have received both in person and financially. This amazing endeavour would not have happened without the continued support of all of you and the absolutely amazing dedication of the volunteers, some who have been here for over a year and those that came for a weekend. You have made a huge difference to so many peoples lives. We hope that you will continue that support us, both in person, with food and clothing donations and financially because without it we will not be able to continue. As an added bonus the RCK family has been awarded the Community Project of the year by the European Diversity Awards which was unexpected but well deserved.. This award goes to ALL of the volunteers and people who have donated and supported us of the last year. YOU ARE ALL AMAZING. With LOVE, RESPECT and DIGNITY we WILL continue to change lives The RCK family" http://refugeecommunitykitchen.com/ https://mydonate.bt.com/donation/start.html?charity=147727 In December 216 I went on a visit to Barclona because to study a week at a yoga studio , and while I was there, I felt to help a little, checked on line and found Esperanca. Who are a small group of people feeding homeless in the centre of Barcelona.
This was what I said after my one night of helping out. A very satisfying nite yesterday, walking a lot with a shopping trolley handing out. bocadillos, fruit and hot soup to homeless in and around the Raval ... A few hours with real nice people and lots of heartwarming smiles from homeless people who are mostly ignored. It seems that some banks have a heart! La Caixa bank let folks sleep in their cash point areas or turn a blind eye cos that's where we found a lot of people and not in any other banks! The project is just a few people operating it from their homes. Through social media, someone to make some litres of soup, get donations of other food, some toiletries and a few appropriate clothes, find a few volunteers, beg or borrow a few shopping trolleys, then on set nights go out together and find the people on the street in the areas they know where homeless are. Thanks cat and crew for the inspiration. X If youre ever in Barcelona, and can offer a few hours any weekend FB page is Esperanca. website is https://homagetobcn.com/homeless-in-barcelona. Help Refugees information.... "Unaccompanied child refugees let down by UK Government, report finds
The report "Nobody Deserves to Live Like This" sponsored by the Human Trafficking Foundation was released in the House of Lords, written under the guidance of Baroness Butler Sloss and Rt Hon Fiona Mactaggart. The report confirms many NGOs' position that the failure of the British and French governments to protect child refugees, and the restriction and closure of legal routes to the UK through the Dubs Amendment and Dublin III family reunification process are "unquestionably" fuelling exploitative smuggling and trafficking organised crime groups. We cannot stand by and let this happen. Children are effectively hunted in Calais and the UK government is doing nothing to protect them. Every day we receive reports of children being woken up by being pepper sprayed in the face, with all their possessions either sprayed, taken away or destroyed." Azizas note... the "pepper spray is not from the trafficking people, it is from the CRS, the French Riot Police. The young refugees are double hunted, one by the people wishing to traffick them, and two by the police who it seems want to make their lives as hard as possible, i guess in the hope that they will leave the area. Pepper spray, beatings, tear gas, are regularly used against refugees of all ages. And this police force in France is paid for by UK tax payers. As was the wall in Calais paid for by UK. Around 2 million. Help Refugees is a reliable organisation that does not skim off money for fancy offices or salaries. I know because I have worked for them. They are committed to providing further aid to meet the basic human needs of refugees, and to do so in a manner which maintains their dignity. If you want to volunteer or donate https://helprefugees.org.uk. Dharamsala is a wonderful place to visit. its the home of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, its a place to meditate, eat momos in little Tibetan cafes, theres a superb chai shop by the Tushita Mediation Centre where I could happily sit for days because you just meet the loveliest people there. There are mountains to climb and waterfalls to bathe in. Local people farm traditionally. It is a mix of Indian and Tibetan cultures mixed up with all the travelers, from so many places, many of whom come here to study meditation. Dharmasala is at its most georgous when the mountainsides are ablaze with red rhododendron blooms. I was visiting there some years ago, doing meditation and yoga, and Id been previously in Auroville which is a spiritual community in Tamil Nadu, a place of vision, founded by the mystic Sri Aurbindo and the mother. I taught yoga there at Verite Hall, and learned to drive a moped, and also did some farming work at The Buddah Garden. Interesting place. While in Auroville, I met an Argentine guy Ezequiel with a flair for instigating eco projects, and he had been inspired by the Dalai Lama. At a talk by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama had said something like..."its enough talking now, now is time for action, go out there and do something useful." Immediately upon leaving the meeting Ezequiel had seen a pile of milk boxes, tetrapac. Thrown in the rubbish pile at the back of the hall. A huge pile, as it was a big meeting and there had been a lot of chai - milky tea, served to all coming to the meeting. Tea is large in Tibet. Ezqauiel quickly found something fun and useful to do with those packets. Make lovely little wallets. Recycle the rubbish. Ezaquiel is a charming guy, and in Auroville he showed many of us at an open day how to make wallets from these milk or juice boxes.... we had a lot of fun making them. Then he said "Ok tomorrow you come and we show the kids in the school how to make them." which we did. And we went to several Auroville schools with this simple project. What was so great about it was seeing the kids attitude to rubbish change, they then were fighting over getting boxes from the rubbish, so they were inspired to see that rubbish isn't rubbish. Also, these kids really really enjoyed making things. All we needed was electrical tape, wool and tetraboxes. After a few school visits, we were supposed to be going to a slum school with Ezaquiel as the kind of project leader, but Ezaquiel phoned me and said "I cant come this time, you go do it on your own." and really landed me in it. so I had to do that. And i realised I was quite capable of organising it all by myself. With a few other helpers. That was his cunning plan! So I spent a lot of time in Auroville washing out smelly milk boxes. When I went onward and northward to Dharamsala on another part of that India journey, I continued to do the same recycling project. I had met some Buddhist monks in a tea shop, where I had helped them with their English, and subsequently had been going to their tiny little flat to give proper English Classes for them for free . They showed me how to make Tibetan noodles and I taught them English, or tried. There were a couple of guys who did not really ever say anything, but we laughed a lot. It was something to see how they lived, four men in a tiny room sharing everything, and living very simply and with a lot of smiles. Cooking on one big pot in the middle of the floor in a house on stilts hanging on the side of a mountain. One day they told me how as part of their Buddhist studies that they were reading the bible. A relitious philosophy that helps teach about other religions and be open to them. More of that please. After spending more time with them, one monk friend was showing me a few faded family photos, he said "this is my mother and this is my father" then showed another picture of a different man and said "and this is my father." I asked, "but you said that man is your father?" thinking I was confused. He looked a bit shy and then said "yes i have 2 fathers, they are brothers, my mother has 2 husband. I have 2 father" Apparently polyandry is allowed in Tibet, and its a pretty cool arrangement where there aren't enough men around. Check it out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyandry_in_Tibet So, back to the eco-project. I rounded up my monk friends and a few other foreign tourists, showed them how to make the wallets, and then we just went to the tiny local schools, and asked if we could have an hour or so of the kids time to do our art recycling project, and the heads of the school always said "yes" .... and we had a lot of fun and often chaos, making recycled wallets with the kids. I recall one place where the kids were younger than we had been told but they had a joyous time cutting out bits of electric tape and sticking them on each others faces. What I learned from this eco project, to give it a big name, was that you do not need any big organisation, permission, or any funds, or anything, just yourself and a few inspired friends. I collected and washed the boxes from cafes, I bought the tape, scissors and wool with a bit of my own money, I just walked into the schools and asked to do it. I taught a few new friends to make the wallets, in a free fun workshop, and they came with me, and we just did the project. Simple. I and others took the project to schools slums and on the street. One day we went to the Tibetan Childrens Village. in McleodGanj. TVC has been there for 5o odd years, it is a thriving, integrated educational community for destitute Tibetan children in exile, as well as for hundreds of those escaping from Tibet every year. It has established branches in India extending from Ladakh in the North to Bylakuppe in South, with over 16,726 children under its care. The photos here are from that day. This time in Dharamsala was my first brush with refugees. The monks I who became my freinds told me stories of their escape from Tibet, "Yes, we walked, for many many days, there were 12 of us and 10 children, it was very cold, men chased us. We were very hungry. Some of the children died." They could tell this with a smile and even a laugh, and seemingly an ease. A Westerner could make more fuss about a shopping trip to Sainsburys. Very humbling. Anyway. I just tell you this story because it shows if you want to do something, just believe in yourself, and do it. and you will have way more fun traveling if you are volunteering and doing something to give to the very communities that give the essence to the place that you are visiting. I did not think that making a tetrapak wallet could be something, that could be so useful.So how was it useful? In integrating different cultures, in giving children a chance to have fun, and to inspire that rubbish is useful if we look at it creatively. For further info, you can read a story of a young Tibetan's walk here https://www.yowangdu.com › Tibet Travel me and a couple of children at the TCV. “This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.” Walt Whitman.
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