MILFORD BROTHERS Declan and Francis Meehan are appealing for support as they prepare to embark on a drive to Calais with donations for refugees.
The Milford brothers will leave Donegal on Friday-week, December 16, to begin the trip which will see them arrive in Calais on December 17th.
They launched their online appeal this afternoon and have already over €200 of a targeted €1,000 raised.
“We are also looking for people to donate items – sleeping bags, heavy blankets, tents, boots, coats, that type of thing,” Declan Meehan told Donegal Daily.
“Things that will keep those sleeping rough warm through the winter.
“It’s the festive period, so it’s nice to give something back.
“We were, like so many others, impacted by the coverage of the refugee crisis, especially since the dismantling of ‘the jungle camp’. There are reports coming out of children being missing or of children not being taken into care homes.”
‘The Calais Jungle’ was cleared at the end of October, but eleven camps are estimated to exist in northern France.
The Meehan brothers have been kindly donated with a van and they intend to fill it before they set off next weekend.
A drop off point is with Premier Services in the IRD Office, Main Street, Milford.
Francis is a teacher at Crana College in Buncrana while Declan is based in Belfast and runs an LGBT Youth Service in Northern Ireland.
Declan said: “Many of those in and around Calais have come from Syria, and many of them are vulnerable, unaccompanied children and young adults.
“We’ve felt the same frustration at the lack of support, humanity and care that has been shown to these people fleeing from some of the most war-torn regions of the Middle East and Africa.
“We are also frustrated at how they are being portrayed in some of our media. So we’ve decided to head over there and try to ease their difficulties just a little in the run up to Christmas.”
You can help the cause here – https://www.gofundme.com/donegal-to-calais-refugee-support
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