THE HIKE TO CALAIS

Tent Repair Kits for Calais

Prompted by political chaos in the UK this year, I wanted to passionately speak up for the benefits of immigration. Inward movement of people from other cultures always enriches the countries and communities those people arrive in, whatever the motivation. People might have been drawn to come to a new place for work (as in my own case) or sadly forced to leave their home place for survival alone.  There are so many reasons why refugees in camps around Europe should not be in this situation. One reason being…countries that should receive them properly don’t recognise the benefits immigration can contribute to their own society.

As the first project of new art collective/design consultancy THE HIKE with Rosie O’Reilly, we volunteered with organisation Care4Calais and delivered 500 non-disposable tent repair kits with high quality, durable components to residents of the Calais migrant camps.   We used our skills to give repair workshops across the camp and by crowdfunding (well beyond our target) we raised the Migrant Crisis as a live discussion amongst our friends and contacts.

Project: THE HIKE, The Jungle at Calais, August 2016.