Is the situation ever hopeless? Dunkirk Human Being Camp 19th Jan 2017

So I am back working at the Human Being Camp in Dunkirk.

The atmosphere on the camp is very different than it was last year, less hopeful I feel. The population is a fraction of what it was then with about 1100 folk of all ages. A lot of children are living here and we are working on rebuilding the women's kitchen and safe space after a fire all but destroyed it a couple of weeks ago. We are working directly opposite the children's centre and it has been heartwarming to see this up and running and being enjoyed by the kids who live here. The volunteers who manage and provide this resource are doing such valuable work for our future. For children to become rounded adults with a healthy relationship with life requires that they should always have time, inclination and opportunity to do three things; 1. Play 2. Laugh 3. Learn. The Children's centre provides these traumatised and bored kids with the opportunity to do all three.

There are however fewer smiles and more dejected faces among the men on the camp young and old. There is a haunted look about them and a sense of fearful resignation on so many faces. I suspect many of these folk are suffering profound depression as they watch their lives and hopes bleed into nothing as the long days and freezing nights drag by.

Yet still I receive genuine smiles of welcome from some familiar faces and new bonds of friendship are being forged even though so many of my friends seem grim and morose.

I can hardly blame them.

It is almost a year now since this camp, the best thing Europe has to offer these people, was put together and I worked with the ABC crew and other independent volunteers to evacuate them from the mud drenched tent city of last year's "jungle" camp in Grande Synthe. In that time the dynamic of the camp has changed significantly. Although there is still a volunteer presence (the ones doing the real work as usual) it is now officially managed by an organisation called Afeji. I will refrain from commenting here about this organisation or its motivation for existing. It's not just the CRS that are supporting the fascist agenda. Talking of the CRS, they seem able to turn up at will to patrol the camp now - despite all the promises and assurances that this would not happen. Volunteers and the ever generous public need permission to come on site at all. Private security people man the gates in a permanent bad mood and the whole feel of the place is one of institutional confinement.

My heart cries out for these people. They are a people forgotten and abandoned by all but a stalwart few. A people whose hope and dream of a better life has driven them to this surreal existence in a garden shed on an old piece of disused land where every day is a choice between soul eating cold and health destroying carbon monoxide poisoning from unsuitable paraffin heaters in overcrowded cramped huts.

Today was a good day. We got a lot done and made good progress with no dramas. None for us that is. For these people life has become a dull and tragic drama played out on the world stage with them the uninspired actors while the rest of the world assume the role of an apathetic and disinterested audience.

My heart cries out to That Which Is for all of us as I think of the implications of all this - what it says about our culture and our nature. What we are becoming. What we have become.....

.....and yet the light and warmth of hope burns on in the efforts and friendship being offered by these beautiful grassroot volunteers that remain engaged with these peoples lives. The Divine Archetype and highest ideals of humanity show themselves in the willingness of those who give whatever they can - be it time, skill or money - to make life here on Earth better.

By doing so they define us. They define the quality, meaning and beauty of what it means to be alive in these times of intense upheaval.

All else I can think to say is this....

....."Je suis un refugie"