Refugees in Calais are set to benefit from up to 20 new shelters in the next week, courtesy of a Tayside couple and their group of volunteers.
Gemma Chapman, 32, and husband Craig, 28, have assembled a group of 10 people from Dundee and Glasgow, and set off on a ferry from Dover to Calais.
The group will spend a week at the refugee camp, which has featured heavily in the global media, with the aim of building 20 new shelters.
Each shelter is expected to hold around five people.
The couple, from Monifieth, have arranged for £2,500 worth of materials to be delivered to the site. As well as building the shelters, the pair will be teaching in the camp’s schools and distributing aid.
Gemma, an assisted learning teacher at Monifieth High School, said: “We were following the crisis in the news and, as Craig has a construction firm, we initially wanted to donate a van to help with supplies but then we saw the photo that emerged of the drowned Syrian toddler, Aylan Kurdi.
“I have a two-year-old daughter, and that really struck us both. We realised we had to do more to help.
“I knew the October holidays were coming up and began looking at charities working on the ground as I knew that Dundee Refugee Support had the donations side of things covered.
“The camp is on a flood plain and recently a big storm caused a lot of people’s temporary homes and possessions to be washed away, so we decided to try to prevent that happening again.”
Gemma outlined the importance of researching the specific issues so that people wanting to help know what they need to do.
She added: “The camp has been receiving lots of aid donations, which are critical, but they do not have the manpower on the ground to distribute the volumes coming in.
“Between that and the animal-like living conditions, with only 1,500 hot meals a day being distributed among 4,000 people, we decided that we needed to be building homes and helping to get the aid to the people.”
Gemma added: “We spoke to charities on the ground and asked what they needed to make sure that we wouldn’t be a burden.”
The group will be documenting what happens during their week in Calais with the help of a photographer in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of the refugees.