The Archers Marquees team, from Charlton, Radstock, who have used their quieter time to volunteer at the Dunkirk Refugee Camp providing labour and supplies, have returned and reflected on their experience.
The team of five drove over with two completely packed vans, full to the roof with the generous donations from the local community. This covered primarily clothes and food, but also encompassed childrens’ games and toys, a multitude of sleeping bags and building materials.
The colleagues spent three days helping build shelters for the thousands of displaced
migrants, work which was on a very different scale to what they are used to, with the whole experience producing a vast range of emotions and experiences, some to be
expected, others not.
Posting on the company’s blog, team leader, Ryan Child, said: “Volunteers of every shape, size and nationality greeted us with smiles, forming a chain and shovelling off the donations to their correct shelves. Coloured signs hanging off-centre from plastic drawing pins directed us to the right sections, inside a warehouse the size of the
Radstock Cooperative store.
“Our first day in Dunkirk was spent building temporary structures. The building process wasn’t too bad, and was a bit like putting together flat-pack furniture. Luckily, there wasn’t a Swedish instruction manual to confuse us!
“As we worked, the refugees, almost all of whom were Kurdish, walked along the main drag of the camp, heading to nowhere in particular, but trying to keep busy. Young men cut each others’ hair, others shaved themselves in cracked mirrors and we even saw a short man dressed in a Manchester United shirt threading his friend’s eyebrows. Suddenly you realise that these people just want to live a life as they did before. That the basics of food and medicine are vital, but so are sunglasses and nice shoes, leather belts and hair gel. Normality in an alien place.
“It’s difficult to fully explain the inner workings of the refugee camp. The people we helped were gracious, helpful and showed enormous gratitude. Our effort was small, but hugely appreciated – it’s the smiles that tell you.
“The first interaction any of us had with a refugee was when a small Kurdish man asked Alex for his sunglasses. And that kind of summed up, or at least distilled the idea of what these people want. A normal life. They have the basics covered and what many of the migrants really want are the little things that make their lives normal, as they were at home, like hair gel, football trainers and sunglasses.
“Maybe worth a think if you are planning on donating to the cause.”
Photos of the team and the full blog post are available at www.archersmarquees.co.uk