From Calais to Whitechapel, finding the Penguins in the Chaos…

Today marks the end of a six-year journey I’ve made with Refugee Youth Service (RYS), as I step down as Chair of the board, and I’ve been sitting with all the emotions that brings.

It began in Christmas 2018, when I travelled to Calais for the first time. I brought a bag of LEGO with me, thinking I might be able to offer a few sessions or spaces for children and young people to play. What unfolded that week was far more profound than I could have imagined.

One of my most vivid memories from that time was a young person, aged 16, who loved penguins. He saw the penguin in my kit and his face lit up. He unzipped his coat and showed us his jumper also had penguins on it. He had been given to him by another refugee who had been given it at a distribution, and so he named the penguin after himself. I don’t know why this is the moment that has stuck with me all these years, the strangest moment of discombobulation in the total chaos of Calais. That penguin still sits on my desk. 

These moments of juxtaposition have become the staple in this work, joy and despair, hope and devastation, the letters from the Home Office next to a lone birthday card. 

Soon after, I joined RYS as a Director alongside Jonny. Over the next six years, we worked to shift the organisation’s focus from Calais back to the UK to do the work that needed to happen right here, quite literally on our doorstep.

I could not be prouder of the work RYS has done in the last 10 years since it was founded, and 6 years I have had the privilege to be a part of that. 

None of that would have been possible without the team of volunteers and staff who have gone into the camps in Calais, through to the ones today who go into hotels from Whitechapel to Reading to Gatwick. 

The incredible Jess who has joined us as co-CEO and our wonderful board who have led RYS and will continue to do so as RYS moves forward. 

And Jonny, who trusted me to stand next to him through the hardest and most joyous moments of the last 6 years. He is the co-founder and heart of RYS, and he has committed his life to this work and to these young people from day 1. RYS would not be what or where it is without you, I am inspired by him everyday and proud to call him a friend and a colleague.

Finally I am grateful to the young people, who still found hope and humanity in the most dire of situations, who found the penguins in the chaos and the bravery to trust a team of strangers with a football.