As young volunteers, our team met each other whilst volunteering in informal refugee camps in Grande-Synthe. We wanted to create this project, as during this time, it became evident to us that more should be done to improve the spaces that exile communities are living in.
Evictions happen regularly in these spaces, from once a fortnight to daily. Each eviction leaves behinds tents, clothes, food and general rubbish. However, even with the poor conditions exile still return to these spaces to seek shelter and receive support from local organisations.
By clearing these spaces regularly, we hoped to:
Improve the living conditions for the people living in these spaces
Reduce the environmental impact of informal refugee camps
Reduce the visual impact of this waste in natural spaces, to reduce tensions between communities.
With the support of the organisation Roots, we were able to complete fortnightly and even weekly waste collection actions. These involved: Picking up litter that surrounded people’s living spaces
Clearing evicted areas of any waste left behind
Provide barrels which could act as bins, which could be more easily emptied into the larger skips provided by the City hall.
Over 2000 litres of waste was collected each week, with volunteers coming to help support these actions from France, the UK and Belgium.
These actions were completed through the funding provided by the European Solidarity Corps as part of our Youth Solidarity Project. We would also like to say a HUGE thank you to Roots and their team, who helped us to complete these collections with their van and the support of different volunteers too!
