Wednesday morning, I sat in Costa speaking through my phone over to Calais where travel blogger and refugee activist, Jaz O’Hara, shared what it’s like to be living in The Calais Jungle and what she’s doing to help the thousands of people that call this little campsite home. Describing the grounds as ‘little, however,’ is beyond understated: The Jungle inhabits about 6000 refugees flown over from conflicted countries seeking safety, health and (cliché, yes) happiness. This year, Jaz and her friends face the hardest milestone yet, as everyday the government set out to bulldoze another area of the neighborhood. By the time the next issue of >title prints – The Jungle may well be already burned to the ground.
Fashion Design graduate, Jasmin (Jaz), grew up with a lust for travel. Along with her parents and her brother, she was always jetting off here, there and everywhere, so trips are second nature. And like most twenty-something girls with the travel bug – Jaz set up a WordPress account and Worldwide Tribe was born. In 2015, she took the Tribe to Costa Rica (where she qualified as a yoga trainer!), Sri Lanka and back to England in time for Glastonbury. It wasn’t until July when Jaz began what she describes as “the biggest roller coaster of my life”.
In August 2015, BBC News reported, “The number of migrants at the EU border surpassed the 100,000 mark in a single month for the first time since it had begun keeping records in 2008.” The refugee crisis, maximized by the thousands in 2015, meant that The Jungle’s population just kept on growing. After seeing coverage, Jaz packed up her bags, left central London, and hasn’t looked back since.
On August 7th of that year, Jaz shared a post on Facebook in the hope that this is the place she would be heard above the loud screams of the Daily Mail’s bullshit, “An hour’s drive from my house, then half an hour on the Eurotunnel, and we were in the world’s worst refugee camp in terms of resources and conditions, yet we were welcomed with open arms. It’s amazing how only the people who have nothing really know how to share.” The post went viral overnight, which is not the reception Jaz expected in the least. Despite the profusely dark side of Facebook these days, Jaz tells the kind of story that sheds a kind light on 21st century social media, “It’s so instant and it’s so reactive and it brings people together in a really beautiful way.”
The Jungle is the kind of place where a guy can’t even get his wisdom tooth removed. Jaz began explaining Mohammed’s story, a friend of hers that’s living in the camp, and how social media really did change his life. “He had a toothache for like six months and it got to the extent where he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep,” she explained. “We were having breakfast one morning, eating croissants and pastries that had been donated. They were a bit stale but I was loving them anyway and he wasn’t eating. When I asked him what was wrong he just said he had toothache,” and, without realizing the severity, Jaz made sure he had painkillers before directing him to the clinic, “It must have been about six months after and I hadn’t seen him for a while. He looked so skinny and unwell.” After being unfairly turned away by every dentist in Calais for expenses, but mostly prejudice; Jaz took to Facebook, and within days Mohammed finally had his tooth removed by a UK dentist who travelled to the Jungle to help.
Mohammed and his rotten wisdom tooth may seem like only a
minor thing compared to what Jaz and the rest of The Jungle
are facing today, but it is proof of what people can do when they
come together. “What we always say the best thing to do to [if
you want to] help is what you’re passionate about” Jaz goes on
to explain that almost anything helps, “work to your own skills
and strengths”, whether that’s joining the build project in Calais,
or spreading the word like >title.
A Syrian refugee told Jaz that, “England [is] where everybody is always smiling and no one has problems,” he also asked, “Is it this cold in England?” It was noon on a sunny day in August. “His expectations, and the reality of his life - if he ever does make it to England -make my heart hurt”, said Jaz as she spoke about her conversations that day, sharing for the first time the stories we don’t see on BBC News.
When the refugee crisis was at its peak back in August, mainline journalists described those fleeing from countries in conflict as ‘migrants’, some countries closing borders because they can’t afford to provide. Jaz talks about the children without their mothers, the men who’ve lost all their family on the way; they don’t want to come England, they have to.
“These people aren’t migrants, they are REFUGEES. They can’t go back, but they can’t go forward, they are stuck, trying to create some kind of normal life from a bit of tarpaulin and a blanket”, she writes in her Facebook post. And now with almost half of The Jungle already demolished, and European countries tightening their borders, if it goes completely, these people will have nowhere to turn. To tear away thousands of peoples’ tarpaulin homes whilst we sit in bed watching Netflix with the heating on full seems a little selfish...
Jaz is using Worldwide Tribe to shed a different light on media coverage and encourages everyone to help her ‘fight that battle’, whether you join the team or donate money for food, clothes or toiletries.
The main idea is get more people on this wavelength and out of mainstream journalisms’ arse. Even though this is our destruction issue, >title is giving you something that shouldn’t be torn down. These people have already faced enough destruction and it is about time we start building them up again.
Hope you guys enjoyed another post from my magazine! Lots of new blogposts to come!
A Syrian refugee told Jaz that, “England [is] where everybody is always smiling and no one has problems,” he also asked, “Is it this cold in England?” It was noon on a sunny day in August. “His expectations, and the reality of his life - if he ever does make it to England -make my heart hurt”, said Jaz as she spoke about her conversations that day, sharing for the first time the stories we don’t see on BBC News.
When the refugee crisis was at its peak back in August, mainline journalists described those fleeing from countries in conflict as ‘migrants’, some countries closing borders because they can’t afford to provide. Jaz talks about the children without their mothers, the men who’ve lost all their family on the way; they don’t want to come England, they have to.
“These people aren’t migrants, they are REFUGEES. They can’t go back, but they can’t go forward, they are stuck, trying to create some kind of normal life from a bit of tarpaulin and a blanket”, she writes in her Facebook post. And now with almost half of The Jungle already demolished, and European countries tightening their borders, if it goes completely, these people will have nowhere to turn. To tear away thousands of peoples’ tarpaulin homes whilst we sit in bed watching Netflix with the heating on full seems a little selfish...
Jaz is using Worldwide Tribe to shed a different light on media coverage and encourages everyone to help her ‘fight that battle’, whether you join the team or donate money for food, clothes or toiletries.
The main idea is get more people on this wavelength and out of mainstream journalisms’ arse. Even though this is our destruction issue, >title is giving you something that shouldn’t be torn down. These people have already faced enough destruction and it is about time we start building them up again.
Hope you guys enjoyed another post from my magazine! Lots of new blogposts to come!
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