The Return of the FAST Team!

From Sally, in Calais, 17th August 2020

Yesterday evening, the 2 founders of the Netherlands-based First Aid Support Team came to the Family Pub with us, and it was lovely to meet them. For me, this means much less first aid, although I did treat a lot of blisters in Dunkerque today, in torrential rain. A gentleman who last week had 5 or 6 open sores the size of £2 coins on his feet and lower legs requiring bandaging on top of paraffin gauze, had improved such that only 4 sores now needed treating with hydrocolloid plasters (Compeed équivalent).

The only photo I have from the afternoon’s «distribution» is of the C4C phone charging station - 5 x 20-sockets plug boards attached to a pallet, connected to a generator. A tarpaulin was pulled across quickly when it started to rain.

However, not having to prepare the first aid supplies means that I can see more of the other important things that happen in the warehouse. Today tasks included pre-preparing hot drinks and putting together male hygiene packs for the 80 or so mainly Kurdish asylum seekers at Dunkerque. Recent police évictions mean that families have been pushed further into the woods and are living under tarpaulins as the police have taken their tents. Conditions were so wet, that only some of the men came out to see us today. But that meant we had time to chat while pouring hot drinks, and, as always, the tales were bittersweet.

Tomorrow we’ll be visiting the Eritrean camp. Perhaps you can’t call people with only blankets and tarpaulins a camp - tents won’t be given out until winter - but they certainly are a community.

A huge thank you for your donations and sorting at DRS. It’s such a privilege to see your efforts being appreciated by the people in these makeshift settlements 🙏