Sunday 8th March
Report written by Sevan
After a coffee stop, Steph, Maria, Kash and Sevan walked to their second community mission of the day at Care4Calais, where task owner Tamzin had collected lots of new stock from another C4C site, which needed to be sorted and stored. Looking into the stock room, there was nowhere to walk. The floor was full of bags, which was the huge task that team needed to solve.
There was a lot of variety in the relocated items, with the team sharing what they'd found in each:
"I've got women's large bottoms"
"A bag of bikinis?"
"This is a bag of babies. Don't open it!"
The babies were actually baby clothes and the sack they were in would contain hundreds of tiny items, so the advice from Tamzin was not to open that sack of worms today. Steph discovered a cache of handbags, there were stilettos, pillowcases and there was even a purse full of cards and cash, all 20 years out of date.
The donations either went into stock, into a charity donation group, one for rags...
"Is the washing machine on?" - Kash
"Yes" - Tamzin
"Good. If there isn't then it feels like there's an earthquake" - Kash
...or into the washing machine, if there was a chance of cleaning the clothes up for new recipients. The team wasn't working fast enough to cause an earthquake today. Must try harder next time.
Over 2 hours, the team had a huge impact in the stock room, with all of the newly received clothes cleared off the floor. Some sort of order was restored. As much as there normally was in the stock room, at least.
Care4Calais is a volunteer run charity delivering essential aid and support to refugees living in the UK, Northern France and Belgium. We believe in a fair and tolerant British society and advocate for a welcoming and inclusive attitude towards refugees. Operating year round, our focus is to provide warm clothing, bedding, food and medical assistance to people in desperate need. We also provide social support and interaction, including language lessons and sports and music workshops.
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