A GROUP held its first public meeting last week with the aim of supporting two refugee families to come and live in Launceston.

The first engagement session for the Launceston Refugee Support Group was held last Thursday at Jericho’s, and more than 30 people went along to hear from speakers including Ruth Christine and Rob Butler, who shared their experiences of visiting Calais and delivering aid.

Frances Tippett is one of the group’s instigators, and has taken inspiration from the Bude Refugee Support Group.

The Bude group has recently received Home Office approval to welcome a refugee family to Bude, through the community sponsorship scheme.

Frances said: “One of the most important things we have learnt from engaging with the Bude group is engaging the whole community is really important. The only way we can get support is if there is broader support.”

She said she had heard in January that the Bude support group wants to welcome two families to the town, adding: “I thought that’s absolutely amazing, my New Year’s resolution is to try and make that happen elsewhere.

“What has warmed my heart over the last few weeks is to learn just how much people are already doing to support refugees.

“Our aim of trying to support a family to come to live with us is an achievable goal — hopefully two families.”

Mary Whibley, who started the Bude Refugee Support Group, told the meeting how their group came into being.

She said the Launceston group ‘would probably have to go down the community sponsorship route’.

The scheme enables community groups including charities, faith groups, churches and businesses to take on the role of supporting resettled refugees in the UK.

Mary said going down this route means needing to raise funds to house two families, which the Bude group has estimated at around £15,000 for each family.

“If you have got dogged determination, tenacity and the ability to cope with frustration you will be okay,” she said.

Ruth, who went to Calais at the beginning of 2016, to the ‘Care 4 Calais’ warehouse, to take clothing and blankets that had been collected, gave a talk to the meeting.

She said there was a ‘wall of shame’ where inappropriate donations were displayed, including bikinis and sequined evening outfits, and part of her job was to sort through these.

She added: “We did get to go into camp to do some deliveries of aid.” She said a fellow volunteer told her ‘it reminds me a bit of the shanty towns in South Africa’.

“People were really living in some pretty bad conditions. People were living in a half destroyed camp. There were queues for food and other aid. People queuing for everything.”

She said there had been Sunday church services in the camp with singing making it a ‘beautiful experience’, but the church and other religious buildings were bulldozed.

She said the police would use tear gas on people, adding: “It did feel like you were in a war zone.”

Rob has collected and distributed aid to Calais from Cornwall. He told the meeting: “The situation now the camp has been torn down — men, women and children are sleeping rough. They can’t put up tents for fear of alerting police.”

He also said there are people in this situation in Dunkirk, and ‘hundreds on the streets of Paris, hundreds of unaccompanied children’. He added: “Some have fallen victim to criminal and paedophile gangs. Their futures are bleak. All are human beings deserving respect and decency.”

He and other volunteers have given out aid on the street to families. He gave a two-year-old boy toothpaste, adding: “He was overjoyed and pretending to brush his teeth, such things we take for granted. The dad had tears in his eyes when he thanked us and so did we.”

Richard Baggett spoke of his experience of hosting refugees and asylum seekers on holiday with his partner Carolyn Burch, through a charity called Freedom From Torture.

He said: “We have met five amazing people from four different countries. The resilience of people who have gone through hell is unimaginable. I know a family coming over to Launceston will help them rebuild their lives.”

A show of hands indicated the meeting was in favour of the ultimate aim of the group to support two refugee families coming to live in Launceston.

The group intends to meet on every fourth Thursday of the month.

The group is taking donations of items for refugees, including food, sanitary products, clothing and shelter.

To find out what is needed, contact Carolyn on 01566 785171, or Rob on 07812 585002, or visit the Launceston RSG page on Facebook. Donations can be taken on Tuesdays at the Central Methodist Church in Launceston from 10am to noon.