Aid Box Convoy leaves for French refugee camp

The headlines may be disappearing and the political rhetoric may have turned once again to immigration but, for the thousands of refugees in camps in northern France the situation remains just as desperate.

On Friday morning a convoy of volunteers will leave Bristol carrying hundreds of life saving aid boxes, each one with enough supplies to help a person survive in the camp.

The Aid Box Convoy is the culmination of a month’s worth of hard work and continual fund raising, however the dedication and commitment of the volunteers, led by Imogen Mcintosh (top photo), has secured support from both Banksy and Arcadia.

“Once Arcadia said they would help it took off really,” says Imogen.

“It went from being in my living room to this,” as she gestures round the huge warehouse off Feeder Road in St Philips, where dozens of volunteers are sorting through donations and organising them in to boxes.

Getting Banksy’s support came next. “One of the team knew a builder at Dismaland and he talked to Banksy’s people,” says Imogen. “They were impressed with how organised we were and what we were trying to achieve.”

Banksy had already talked about donating Dismaland to The Jungle Camp in Calais but, after one of his representatives went to visit the various camps, he decided to donate the Dismaland structures to the Aid Box Convoy.

He’s also sending out a team of carpenters and builders to the camp as well.

“Dismaland is all taken down now,” says Imogen. “We are left with huge sheets of wood and materials which we can use.”

“We will go out there as start organising and building the structures,” she adds. “We plan to build cooking areas and five communal shelters which are dry and warm.”

“The Dismaland structures and their team of builders and chippies will follow next week and finish the building work for us.”

The convoy will also include builders from Bristol who have been raising funds for the refugees themselves.

Bristol Building Support Through Shelter has raised more than £1,000 and the team, led by Rob Crook, will initially help to construct the shelters.

The aid box team will be at the camp for a week, but Imogen says this is only the beginning of the relief effort.

“It’s not going to end here. The problem is not going to go away quickly. We’ve raised more than £5,000 and we will be spending that on future trips. Once we’ve been out there we will be able to see what people need.”

Imogen says the people of Bristol have been incredibly supportive of the Aid Box Convoy: “It’s been so fantastic, such an amazing response – it’s been better than we could have ever imagined.

“With the money we can make more aid boxes and go out again. There are three other camps in the area so we will be able to help them as well.”

Read more about how you can get involved and help with the refugee crisis.