Help the kids in the Bois Blancs camp get through the winter

Hi

There is a makeshift camp of boys sleeping in tents in a park not far from our house. These boys are unaccompanied minors (under 18), who arrived in Europe on small boats and who come mainly from Guinea. They are stuck in a legal loophole hell whereby the state has decided, based on a short and intentionally confusing interview, they are not under 18. This means they are not entitled to the protection of the state that they would be as under 18s, but because they refuse to say they are adults, are also not eligible for any adult help - they are homeless. The result is that these boys have to send off to Guinea for copies of their documents and arrange a date in front of a judge to be formally recognised as under 18. This process takes on average 9 months, but can take over a year. In this time their only help comes from a charity named https://utopia56.org/ and individuals.

The camp is in a park in the Bois Blancs area of Lille. It's a friendly area and there is a solidarity network of residents that cook for the boys, organise French and other lessons, house them for extended periods, wash their clothes etc.

At the end of last year the police came and removed the camp, and it was organised for them to sleep in churches/disused gymnasiums etc, presumably so there wouldn't be children freezing to death in tents over Christmas.

Starting from tomorrow the City has decided to close these places and the boys will be back in the street, and back in the camp. Needless to say the temperature at night will be around 2 degrees for several more weeks and this is going to be very tough for them. All of them are poorly equipped for this, they are sleeping in mainly cheap, single layer tents, with a few donated blankets, and the majority of them don't have winter clothes etc.

Our project is to give anyone who needs it a pack containing; a pair of thermal leggings, a pair of gloves, a pair of socks, and a thermos. Sleeping bags are already provided by a charity. We're expecting 70+ boys in the camp soon, so we wanted to raise some money to help us do this. It will cost about 30 euros per person.

I know it's a big favour to ask! There are camps exactly like this all over France, and all over Europe. There's a lot of awful stuff going on all over the world and so many worthy causes to donate to, lots and lots of them more desperate than this. Anything you can donate we would appreciate massively.

What we are doing does work and these boys do have a chance! Just personally we've had several who have stayed with us, who have then been recognised as minors, who have found places at schools, and now have places to live and apprenticeships. They often come to visit us and it's uplifting to see them getting on with their lives.

Thank you for reading!

Max & Coralie