Phone Credit For Refugees

For the people in the Calais refugee camps, having access to a mobile phone means many things.

Some use it to keep in touch with their families. Some use it to check the news for updates on the situation in their home country. Some use it to simply break the monotony of daily life in the camp.

The charity, Phone Credit for Refugees and Displaced People, began in February of this year and since then, has helped to send over £40,000 in top-up to phones in Calais. Using a simple Facebook group, the charity takes requests from people in need in the camps and distributes phone credit to help them.

The demographics of the refugees vary; some are young, some are old and they are from a number of different countries. They share a common reason for being there, to find a better life.

The group organizers are Rhian Prescott and James Pearce. They monitor the Facebook group on a voluntary basis and dedicate all of their free time to maintaining it and ensuring that as many requests for top-up as possible are processed. All of the top-up has been funded by public donations.

James and Rhian shared some of the ways that the people in the camps have used the top-up they sent:

Abo uses his credit to keep up on events in Aleppo and make sure his friends and family are safe

Ahmad uses his credit to speak to his children who he had not been able to speak to for three months

Mohammad uses his credit to catch Syrian news reports and to speak to his cousins in the UK

For the people in the camp, having access to a phone is a vital resource and the charity is making a huge difference to helping to power them. To find out more, visit the Phone Credit for Refugees Facebook page or visit the PC4R website.

As part of our Access For Good initiative, Ding has made a donation to support the work of Phone Credit for Refugees.