Books for the Calais migrants' library and school

Sat 12 Sep 2015, 18:48

Liz, Sarah, will you still be collecting before 20 September at your house/garage for transport to Oxford?

Fri 4 Sep 2015, 15:49

Crying Out for Calais also have a list on Amazon that you can donate from, useful items including warm clothing, tarpaulins, sleeping bags and cooking utensils - the items will be sent to a Witney address for onward distribution

Fri 4 Sep 2015, 13:52

If anyone would like to donate any items from the list that Liz posted but can't make it to the drop off points then Liz and I will transport donations. Please drop donations off this Saturday and Sunday at 2 Enstone Road. The garage will be open between 3-6 pm. Please bring your donations in shopping/ bin bags. Thank you.

Thu 3 Sep 2015, 23:39

Hamish, you will be pleased to know that volunteers rescued a great deal of suitable leftovers from Reading, and from other festivals too. If you follow CalAid on Facebook, you will read more about it. There are also photos of some terrible recent flooding of the site known as The Jungle.

Also on Facebook, a Witney based group called Crying out for Calais can be seen collecting things. They have organised a meeting this coming Monday evening, September 7, at 7.30pm in The Fleece for anyone interested in helping further. They also have a crowdfunding page for people who want to contribute money.

Thu 3 Sep 2015, 21:58

Seeing the list of badly needed items and then today on the train seeing the fields of abandoned tents and no doubt other items of clothing/wellies/etc left from Reading Festival leaves me questioning the morality of the disposable society we live in that appears to becoming the norm for the younger generation.

Wed 2 Sep 2015, 21:22

I just came across this that might interest some people..

Some big-hearted folk at Oxfam are collecting items on behalf of Calaid, a group of volunteers gathering urgently needed donations for people living in the Calais refugee camps.
If you live in Oxford and have clothing or toiletries to donate please drop them at one of the following places by 20 September.
Clothing/toiletry donations can be dropped at:
- Turl Street Kitchen (16 Turl St, Oxford OX1 3DH)
- Oxfork (39 Magdalen Rd, Oxford OX4 1RB)
- Branca, 111 Walton St, Oxford OX2 6AJ by 17th Sep at 8am
- Oxfam House (John Smith Drive, Oxford OX4 2JY)
- South Oxford Farmers Market 9:30 - 12 - Sunday 6th & Sunday 13th September. South Oxford Community Centre OX1 4RP
What our fellow humans in Calais BADLY need:
SHOES: trainers or hiking shoes size 41-46
Tents, Covers, Tarpaulin
Jackets: size Small and Medium only
Traveling bags
Socks
Candles or other lighting implements
Belts
What they Always need:
Tracksuit trousers
Jeans size 28-32
Blankets
Sleeping bags
Soap
Shampoo
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Plastic bags
Woolly hats
Pants
Pots
Pans
What we Do not need:
Womens and children's clothes or shoes
Sheets
Pillows
Suits
Town Shoes
Jumpers
Wellingtons

Mon 31 Aug 2015, 08:31 (last edited on Mon 31 Aug 2015, 08:36)

There are people in Charlbury with all kinds of language skills and knowledge, and it occurs to me that we might be able to contribute to this effort.

Also, people working in London might be able to take books to the drop-off point.

Here is the information from the Verso Books blog. Verso are a London-based book publisher.

Jungle Books: Calais migrant camp's newly opened library needs books!

Verso London is sending books to Jungle Books (or Livres de la jungle in French), the makeshift library at the Calais migrant camp known as the Jungle. Mary Jones, who set up the library, wants to add more books in the native languages of the migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, and hopes that eventually, the camp inhabitants will run the library. Besides stocking around 200 books, the Guardian reports, "the library supports a school that offers classes to the refugees and asylum seekers that live in the camp."

Jones, who has been bringing items to the camp for years as part of a growing number of volunteers, activists and support groups practising everyday solidarity, said: "I wanted to start something that offered real, practical help. Many people here are well-educated: they want to get on and they want books that will help them read and write English, apply for jobs, fill-in forms."

Calais Migrant Solidarity requests "books, dictionaries, texts, zines etc. in any and all languages" in their call for supplies under 'What people need on the ground'. Jones told Roger Tagholm of Publishing Perspectives that camp inhabitants ask for all sorts of books, including short stories and poetry, and she made a specific request for the following donations: "Pashto-French dictionaries, Pashto-English dictionaries, Eritrean dictionaries, books in native languages."

Verso is sending a selection of English-language titles including John Berger's A Seventh Man, Hsiao-Hung Pai's Scattered Sand, Jeremy Harding's Border Vigils, our graphic novels, as well as foreign editions of our books in several languages.

If you want to contribute books to our shipment, please email sarah@verso.co.uk to arrange dropping them off at our Soho office. To contact Jungle Books directly, email Mary Jones at maryjones@orange.fr.