I’ve just finished my second time volunteering with Care 4 Calais and every time I get home it takes me a few days to process the work I’ve just done. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as inspired as I do now to make sure that I work towards helping people and making their lives better. The weather this time was freezing cold, snowy, and felt like -10°c on most days. Every single person I met was smiling, not one complaint, every queue for clothing distributions was calm and relaxed. These boys are my age, some even younger and the strength that they have to live through what they have, and maintain their positivity in freezing conditions, thousands of miles away from home, not knowing if they’ll ever see their family again is inspiring.

The CRS (basically French riot police who harass and assault the refugees in Calais, and who are also funded by the British government) showed up on site almost every day, to intimidate volunteers and scare the guys, walking over with at least three guns, pepper spray and bats they were walking right through a football match that I’d queued 20 minutes to play in, just to tell us that we can’t hand out biscuits to the refugees as it is against the law. 

I know for a fact that if I was in their situation I would not be as positive as the boys I met, fleeing horrific human rights violations in Sudan and leaving their lives behind. A few of the guys told me they missed their mums which was probably one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had with anyone, I miss mine after a term of being at uni let alone not knowing if they’re alive or not. This does make hearing people's uniformed opinions on refugees much much harder and more annoying, but by telling the stories of refugees hopefully they can inform better opinions. 

I sometimes feel guilty for enjoying my time volunteering, but then I remember the joy the people get from talking to you, and making fun of my Arabic and French, how normal and similar these guys are to me. It honestly is one of the most fun and exciting things you can do and I love every day there. This time has really lit a fire in me and I want to keep working as hard as possible with volunteering, my degree and any other work so that I can try to help in any way possible.

If anyone is reading this and wants to volunteer but may be too nervous, I can guarantee you it will be the best thing you can ever do.