Towards the end of 2015 it became apparent that a crisis was building; refugees escaping from conflict and persecution in the Middle East and elsewhere were coming to a Europe that was ill-equipped and confused about how to respond. 

The death of 3 year old Alan Kurdi and subsequent washing up of his body on a Turkish beach was the spark that made global headlines and subsequently ignited a response not just from existing organisations but from the general public.

Around this time a number of local groups started organising donations and shipping them to Syria, Greece, Lebanon, France and other places where there was a need. Others went to help in some of these places.

These were very spontaneous actions, mostly by small groups of like-minded individuals, and while they did little to change the big picture they were very effective in many small ways; filling a lot of the gaps that governments and big NGOs were simply not set up to deal with.