The Jersey Cares; Refugee Aid Group was originally set up in 2015 by Bram Wanrooij in response to the growing refugee crisis and was originally called the Jersey ‘Calais’ Refugee Aid Group. It ran various aid missions to the Calais Jungle in 2015 and 2016 and continued to raise money and awareness to help refugees after the demolition of the camp.
It then changed its name to reflect the need to help refugees throughout France, and has now relaunched with the intention of working throughout Europe.
And Laura Ridley has taken over leading the organisation.
She said: ‘I attended the initial launch meeting of JCRAG at Trinity Parish Hall and it moved me to my core. In April 2016 I went with JCRAG to deliver aid to the L’Auberge des Migrants warehouse in Calais and worked there for two days, packing dried and tinned food for distribution in the Calais Jungle.
‘I returned twice more in 2016 before the camp was evicted in the October, but I knew I wasn’t finished helping, because the crisis wasn’t over. Since then I have volunteered in northern Greece and the Greek island of Chios, and I will return there again this October for another two weeks.’
Recent donations by JCRAG include those to the IRIS Centre in Chios, which provides hygiene facilities and a clean and safe play area for the families and children housed in the ‘hot-spot’ called Vial, to Mo Chara, a volunteer-run and funded rescue boat in daily action on the northern coast of Lesvos, where there are still boats full of refugees arriving on an almost daily basis, and to the Meena Centre, a community centre and project founded by ex-volunteers from Calais who now support vulnerable asylum-seeking women and children in the Birmingham area.
JCRAG also continues to support the Refugee Community Kitchen in Calais which is still in operation to provide and distribute food every day to the hundreds of refugees living rough in the area around Calais and Dunkirk. At present, the committee says it has ruled out sending volunteer trips over to the area because the potential risks have been assessed as too great.
However, the organisation will continue to support volunteer groups on the ground in Paris, especially as winter closes in and the refugees, including families with young children and babies, will once again find themselves on the streets without shelter, and subject to what the group described as ‘a hostile campaign of constant harassment by the authorities’.
Meanwhile, JCRAG is currently looking for a storage space for the collection and sorting of donations. A space around the size of a double garage is needed and it must be able to be secured.
For more information or to help email JCRAG2018@gmail.com or get in touch via Facebook.
