Refugees in crisis: How to fill and pack emergency food bags for distribution to refugees living without shelter

July 2017: Preparing food bags for distribution to Sudanese refugees living rough in Bruxelles

In the Autumn of 2015, the death of the little Syrian boy Alan Kurdi placed the refugee story centre stage in the mind's eye of many people.  Outraged by the humanitarian crisis, volunteers across Europe kickstarted a huge effort to provide aid and support to the men, women and children arriving here, fleeing war, famine and poverty in several countries across the Middle East and Africa.

This video shows how a very small team of volunteers, albeit with good funding, was able to put together hundreds of food bags in double quick time.  The process in the video works well, but it can be improved.  After watching, I hope you think of improvements and put them into practice to ensure the people you help get the best support available.

 

Since then, the need to support the thousands of vulnerable refugees, rather than abating has increased.  The unofficial refugee camps in Calais and Dunkirk, while awful, offered at least some stability to the encamped refugees.  The camps meant charitable associations could more easily provide tents, caravans, hot meals, clothing and support in a centralised location. However, the breakup of the unofficial camps and the dispersement of thousands of refugees across France and Belgium means the men, women and child refugees and volunteer groups now face different challenges.

In July 2017, the Liverpool based refugee and homeless support team at Merseyaid, put out a call for aid to be delivered to France.  I transported almost a hundred sleeping bags and blankets for distribution to refugees sleeping rough in Northern France.  I stayed volunteering for a couple of weeks.  While in Calais, I helped out at the Care4Calais warehouse in Sangatte and did two food bag distributions to hundreds of young Sudanese men living rough around the Gare du Nord rail station in Bruxelles.

Delivering a food bag distribution to a multitude of end-users is challenging and requires good teamwork but the back-end logistics of gathering suitable food donations, filling and packing bags, balancing the often conflicting issues of deadline, quantity, quality, and budget, requires money, strong processes, as well as great teamwork. 

Merseyaid refugee and homeless support

If you want to donate food, clothes, money or volunteer your time to help refugee men, women, boys and girls please visit Merseyaid the Liverpool based refugee and homeless support group.

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Refugees are "rats in human form" response to Ormskirk Volunteer in the Calais Jungle newspaper article

Thank you to the Southport Visitor Newspaper for the coverage of ten day volunteering during August in the Calais Refugee Camp.

Photo taken in the Calais Refugee Jungle Camp

The article generated a number of responses in the comments section, most were favourable to the plight of the refugees.  Indeed the comments demonstrated that there are other people in the North West who support the refugees and are doing their own work to collect and distribute donations to the camp.

However, one person decided to respond altogether less favourably and called the refugees "rats in human form" and "filth".  In response, I wrote that I wondered if this chap suffered from a form of personality disorder, and while we should hate the actual comment, we should go easy on any poor soul who could utter such a vile thought. But on the other hand, it's perhaps dangerous to dismiss such comments as the raving of a mad man. If you replace "illegals", as he refers to the refugees, with "Jew", then we've been here before in Europe's not so distant past. The refugees in Calais are not rodents or a swarm, they are men, women, boys and girls, like each of us and they deserve our empathy and assistance.

Supporters of the refugees on the Facebook group Calais - People to People Solidarity - Action from UK took a different view to both the horrible comments and my response.  Leanne said "Can we please not equate mental health diagnoses with making hateful comments? Having a mental illness does not make a person racist!!!". Leanne is right of course, having a mental illness does not in general make someone a racist. I am not tarring all the people with a mental illness with the same brush. However, to refer to a group of people as "rats in human form" and "filth" is perhaps indicative of a sociopathic personality disorder.  On the other hand, my wife Heather said that perhaps the man is just horrible and horrible people say horrible things.

Andrew, from the organisation A Safe World For Women, said in reponse to the "rats in human form" comment "I would suggest this counts as incitement to racial hatred and most certainly hate speech".  Andrew has requested that Trinity Mirror Plc, which is the publisher of the Southport Visitor newspaper, ensures that the offensive comment is removed.

The majority of the comments to the article show once again that  despite the political differences regarding how the refugee crisis should be handled, many of us can still come together and agree that compassion for our brother and sisters trumps xenophobia.

If you want to donate food, clothes, money or volunteer your time to help refugee men, women, boys and girls please visit the Liverpool based refugee and homeless support charitable group Merseyaid

Do you have some community news from around the Ormskirk area to share or a story to tell? Yes!

Please contact Life In Another Town