Calais Light
We need to smash £10,000 to meet our NEW MISSION!
JOIN US IN OUR PASSION - giving help, hope and dignity to refugees
As a supporter of Calais Light, you play a critical role in providing help and hope to those who have been displaced by conflict and persecution. Your compassion helps us continue our efforts to improve their day-to-day experience and offer both emotional and practical support on the ground in Calais and the UK.
We've made three big changes!
We are still taking 5 convoys a year to Northern France.
In 2021, we launched our Helper Brand Gifting initiative, #courtcommerce. With this, we've raised over £300,000 in brand-new, stylish clothes and essential items for refugees in UK bridging hotels, partnering with high-street brands. Giving dignity back to the lives of people who have lost their possessions, their families, and their homes.
In 2023 we opened the first of three planned Befriender Hubs in the UK, where local people can offer support and friendship to asylum seekers in bridging hotels. This includes giving English lessons, friendship and support.
However, life for refugees, in France and the UK remains challenging. Their plight magnifies what we, at Calais Light, have always believed - that refugees are people, like us, who need help, kindness and our support because of the terror and trauma they have experienced, leaving everything to seek safety elsewhere. We've seen with our own eyes in Afghanistan and Ukraine how terrifying easily & suddenly normal people can become refugees - jumping from planes, terrorized by bullets, hiding from reprisals. We need to reach out powerfully to the refugees who seek sanctuary here - understanding & supplying their needs!
That's why I founded Calais Light. The car-sharing convoy takes ordinary people every 3 months - just for the weekend to volunteer with the 3, main, grassroots charities there: Care4Calais, Refugee Community Kitchen & Choose Love (Collective Aid). We are like a mini travel service, we book everything for our volunteers: c£90 for ferries, hostel accommodation, car sharing, petrol, drivers, meals out together, charity admin, and free secure parking in the UK. We subsidise 10% of each group where necessary so that students & the less financially able can come.
So it's easy for everyone to say yes! And they do! We have shed loads of fun & work extremely hard. We're a family, an ever-changing & caring team! Our charity group mantra is "We take manpower & money - not stuff.
This concept is now evolving with our work in Befriending Hubs in the UK.
So .... money is needed to run Calais Light & to help us be effective & honour the lives & mental well-being of refugees. Please donate to us now & help us raise £10,000 - any amount, no matter how small will help!
OUR POLICY
We have a NO-HOARDING POLICY on cash. Everything we get above a minimum operating balance goes straight to help refugees in one of the ways described above! We aim to donate regularly to the 3 charities & respond to their emergency appeals.
Your support means everything to us. Please donate now & help us to help fund the new work we do until refugees are offered a solution, safe passage, & humane treatment once they reach our shores. Thank you for being a beacon of hope.
