From Calais to Chios

Following his hard work in Calais, Marlow born volunteer Dom Ford has undertaken a new project, this time on the other side of Europe.

Based in Greece, OADW is a new project designed for the distribution of clothing with Dom coordinating the receipt of donations to the warehouse that supplies the OADW. After a month overseas, he has sent MRA the following update…

I’ve now spent a few weeks here on the Greek island of Chios, working for Offene Arme, as the new warehouse coordinator.

Given the covid situation, the more direct route wasn’t open so I had to fly to Budapest, wait 12 hours, get another flight to Athens, get tested immediately upon arrival, stay in a hotel room until the test was returned, receive the results, take a third and final flight to Chios, and finally quarantine for a further 5 days.

Eventually, after all that, I was able to start work.




It’s been an incredibly stressful time for NGOs all over the world. Most volunteers have gone home, so organisations are woefully understaffed, whilst necessary covid-19 precautions add to the workload of those remaining. 

Those of the OA team that have stayed here decided to start a new project, and move away from emergency response as needs and priorities evolved.

This project is referred to as the OA Distribution Warehouse, and acts as a kind of free shop. Beneficiaries can visit and take up to a set number of clothes for free, depending on their age and gender.

This way of distributing clothes gives people more freedom to choose what they actually want to wear, rather than adopting a get what you’re given approach.

Although the project only recently started, and the entire team has worked tirelessly to get it moving, we are hopeful everyone in the nearby Vial camp will be able to visit before September.

Donations are normally brought over in large containers – yesterday 2 Swiss men had driven for 3 days to get here!! However, although there have been a few donations that have made it to us, there is a massive shortage of clothes fit for summer, mainly due to covid-19.

Still, I’m excited to see how this project will turn out, and how the organisation will adapt to best serve the beneficiaries. As restrictions are relaxed, hopefully volunteers will start to return!!

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Fizzy arrives in Calais!

#RelayForRefugees helps provide a van for volunteers on the ground in Calais!

This past week, we received some great news from the Collective Aid team in Calais…

Through our fundraising endeavours, a new van has been part funded by MRA enabling the volunteers to continue on helping refugees along the Northern France coast.

Here’s what they said…

Look how excited we are about this van! We have named her Fizzy as she was delivered with a bottle of bubbly!? A huge thank you to @marlowrefugee & @chooselove for jointly funding a new distribution vehicle for our work in Calais. Our vans are some of the most valuable resources we have – they are absolutely essential for all the work we do.

We are so grateful for all of the support we receive from incredible organisations like Help Refugees & Marlow Refugee Action, not forgetting all of our individual supporters like YOU!

Big love, ❤️

Team Collective Aid

It’s great to see the accumulation of everyone’s hard work through Refugee Week 2020, so well done and thank you again for all who got involved.