I have been waiting four months to write this, it took me that long to find the right words to describe how I feel, but finally I think I know what I want to say.
When I first came to Calais I was excited and nervous and ready to make a difference. I knew it would be hard but I had no idea how quickly bonds would be made with volunteers and refugees alike, I have found a family in The Hummingbird Project – a family that we’ll all have for the rest of our lives no matter how the Refugee Crisis changes and evolves and for that I am forever grateful. I have met some of the most incredible and inspiring young people, children as young as eleven who have been through the most traumatic of experiences but still find the energy and optimism to greet you with a smile and a laugh. I can’t wait to accompany them on the next stage of their journey, to see them grow and learn and get the life they deserve. I feel so honoured and humbled to have been allowed into their lives, to have heard their stories and shared time with them. The next few months will be challenging as we learn about the government’s plans for them but I hope to see them arrive to safety so that they can start to rebuild their lives
Last night I said goodbye, I said goodbye to some of our kids but also to The Jungle itself. I’m sure I’ll be out in Calais again soon, but I am equally sure that what I’m faced with will not be what I have gotten used to over the last four months. The future of The Jungle is so uncertain that there’s a chance I won’t return and if I do it’s certain that the situation will be very different on the ground over there than it is now. It was one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever made and even as I write this I know that things are changing across The Channel.
Myself and the Hummingbird Team were thrilled on Saturday evening, sitting in The Family Pub in Calais, to read online that the first unaccompanied minors had been brought to the UK on the Dubs Amendment. We have children we have referred to this list and before Saturday not a single one had been brought over despite the government approving this amendment in March so this was exactly the news we needed to receive just before the evictions and it really helped boost morale. The 50 Eritrean girls brought over on Saturday were among some of the most vulnerable in the camp and volunteers are now pushing for the under 13’s to be the next group granted entry, eventually we hope to see all of the unaccompanied minors eligible under the Dubs Amendment to be relocated to the UK.
If I have learnt anything through working in The Jungle it is that the Refugee Crisis is not going anywhere and it is something everyone needs to be aware of and take responsibility for. The people living in these refugee camps scattered all over Europe are not there for the fun of it, they are there because the countries they have fled from are not safe to live in. Children and adults alike face terror, uncertainty and in many cases death if they are returned to their country of origin, many have walked thousands of miles over months and months to get to safety only to be stuck in the limbo that is a refugee camp like The Jungle. I don’t know anyone in the UK or the western world who has been through anything that would force them to take action like that. Imagine going through that, walking for days or weeks or months, paying dangerous people to smuggle you across borders, being alone and lost and scared. Imagine going through all that only to be treated like an animal, to be turned away from any place of safety. So many of these refugees have legitimate claims to the UK and yet their appeals fall on the deaf ears of people who would rather write them off as ‘economic migrants’ to help themselves sleep better at night after turning them away. I don’t know a single person in England who would be strong enough to go through all of that and still keep going.
With all the horrible things happening all over the world this is the time for us to stick together, this is not the time for everyone to turn on each other. I hope that if I was ever in a situation where I needed help from another country that it would be offered to me. these people want to be safe, they want to build a new life and I think this is an opportunity for humanity to show what it’s good for. We have the power to help these people and we need to use it.
I don’t know what’s next for The Jungle or its residents, I know that The Hummingbird Project won’t stop. I know that I have a lot more of myself to give before and I am so proud of our kids and how brave they have been for so long. I can’t wait to see them in the UK living the life of normal teenagers.
I couldn’t have imagined four months ago how much Calais the refugees there would change my life but I can say wholeheartedly that joining The Hummingbird Project is the best thing I ever did and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I have met incredible people, done incredible things, visited parliament to lobby and educate on behalf of our kids and spent time with some of the most inspiring children I will ever have the pleasure of meeting. As much as I wish we weren’t needed, we are and while we are we will continue doing what we do. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such an incredibly organisation.
Thank you for letting me in,
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