Portsmouth Calais Refugee Aid

***Our next trip is 4th-8th December 2015. Eleven of us are going to Calais to volunteer where needed and to deliver donations.

Update 16/9/15 - As the situation on the ground in the jungle at Calais is regularly changing, we need to be flexible and adapt to current needs and requirements. Right now, the jungle is in desperate need of volunteers to help with distributing donated items. They also need shelters urgently, now that Winter is coming. There is also a big clean-up of the camp which is being organised from 26th Sept, so waste and litter picking tools/equipment are also useful and we would be very happy to take them. We are still taking all the very helpful items that have been donated to us and have arranged a drop-off with a local organisation in Calais, who will distribute them in the most beneficial way. However for this trip we are now not adding anything else that is not on the list in the picture above. Shelter building tools and materials are particularly helpful. Financial donations will help us to get items there and also help to buy food and building materials locally. We will also work wherever needed whilst we're there. On this trip, there are six of us taking a van and two cars. Thanks for your support!

We are delivering aid items (bedding, clothing, tents, food, toiletries) to the people currently living in desperate conditions in Calais. I'll be driving my own car (on some trips joined by others bringing their car or van) and taking items directly into the refugee camp where we can distribute them to be used immediately. If for some reason this is not possible at the time, then I will deliver the items to a nearby storage location in Calais from where they can be distributed by other local volunteers.

My first trip was on 29th August. Our second trip is 3rd October. Money raised will help fund transport and the purchase of supplies, in particular sleeping bags, toiletries, hygiene and first aid kits. The men, women and children in the camp have very little and are living in appalling conditions which daily risk their health and lives.

The huge recent media coverage has really brought to attention the urgency of the help needed for the 4-5000 people currently living in and around the area known as 'The Jungle' who are in desperate need of basic essentials such as food, shelter and medical care. These people have already risked their lives to flee war, persecution, poverty, abuse and other horrors and now risk dying trying to make the journey to England (as several have recently died).

Any amount of cash will help and be gratefully received but it would also be great to receive donations of items from the list above which I can take in the car/van.

When donating through Paypal it helps if you click on' sending money to family or friends' as that will avoid Paypal taking a cut out of your donation.

Thank you!