* WHAT? * 

This year, I’ll be walking the distance from Damascus to Calais. Not alone, but with a brilliant bunch of friends – from Geneva to Ottawa, and London to Linlithgow. 

5,000 kms. The kind of distance that refugee children struggling to survive in Calais will have journeyed, alone or accompanied, in desperate search of a safer, happier life.  

Together, we’ll be raising funds for a tiny, formidable, fully volunteer-led charity, Project Play. The only organisation offering refugee children in Calais (who aren’t allowed to attend school) the chance to play … a slither of light in their otherwise dark and difficult days. 

* WHY? *

Because every child has the right to a safe, decent childhood and to develop to their full potential. But the refugee children of Calais have been forgotten. The media has long-gone, the funding has vanished and the government policies have become brutal. 

Right now, here’s the reality for hundreds of children in Calais; days without water, electricity, food, heat, safety or respect … nights spent huddled together under tarpaulin, cold, wet and in fear of the next eviction, which happens every few weeks. No books, no toys, no school, no playdates, no lightness.  

Play – simple but critical. It brings joy and growth and a chance for our little people to imagine themselves in a different world - that they can be anything and do anything. This chance is even more critical for refugee children in Calais who, through no choice or fault of their own, are struggling to survive.  

So, we are walking to bring joy, and light, and fun, and learning, and a safe space, to children who – without the efforts of Project Play – wouldn’t have access to it. Small steps to bring big joy, to children who need it most … 

Please, please consider supporting us … a donation of any amount will make a real difference – particularly to such a small, fully-volunteer led organisation who delivered 281 play sessions last year (our target is the equivalent of a month of play)

Thank you so much xxx  

Ps we’ll update this page to map our journey (and share some of our ‘wanders of the week/strolls of the Semana’!)