Practical ways you can help the refugees

Petition signed and donations of clothing etc. made to local group. DH on list for van driving and I will be sorting.

love-in-the-language-of-yarn.blogspot.co.uk/
'Lily' - Love In the Language of Yarn is a small but very good charity run by a British lady in Turkey:

Next Friday (11th September) there will be a delivery to a local Syrian refugee camp. In this camp there are approx 250 families in which there are 16 pregnant mothers, 15 babies, 48 1-year olds & 47 2-year olds, I don't have the figures as yet for the older children. I will put together as many blankets and as much clothing as we have. We are also collecting sanitary towels, toiletries, food items, nappies, baby formula and bottles.

There is a link above where you can make a donation if you wish, and read more about the charity.

Thank you

They already have trusted drivers and transport and buy needed items locally in Turkey with donated money.

Lily also collects knitted items and squares to make blankets for Syrian refugees, but because the lady who runs it has not been well, this is on hold temporarily.
However, donations are still required so that they can purchase toiletries, food, bottles, baby milk etc. to deliver to the ever-increasing camps.

Could something not be done in a similar way to what was done for the Ugandan Asians? I know it is totally different, and there is not the surplus housing stock available as there was in the 70's. Surely there must be houses that could be made available. Communities like ours got together and furnished the houses for the Ugandans. We made three families welcome in our little town. I know I may just be living in hope here, but where I now live there are houses that have been "for sale, or to let" for two or three years. It was just a thought anyway.

279,000 empty homes in UK according to Shelter, hilda.

We did it for the Vietnamese boat people as well.

twitter.com/AJENews/status/639447590451445760
This is what a German football team want to do.
Liverpool has offered refuge for 100.
Living in hope can work.

BBC reporter now getting very angry with Carswell, who says we can reduce immigration at the same time as offer asylum to genuine asylum seekers.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11574361/No-filling-Britains-218000-empty-homes-will-not-solve-the-housing-crisis.html

We already have a housing crisis.
What do you suggest?

Our local churches are collecting items - mens jeans waist 32 and 34, tents and groundsheets, trainers, all sorts of things but quite specific as to what is needed.

Telegraph is owned by men who do not pay their taxes properly. I do not take any notice of them.

Empty homes can be lived in by people, short or long term.
We have a housing crisis because we do not use empty homes, because we allow landlords too much power.

The Telegraph's articles are written by independent journalists, not 'men who do not pay their taxes properly'. Why are their articles any less relevant than those in the revered Guardian (or Mirror?). Ridiculous attitude!

Journalists like Mary Riddell, ex Observer and New Statesman, but in the eyes of right-thinking left-wingers she has touched pitch, and is defiled.

www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne/why-i-have-resigned-from-telegraph

Very independent.

Yes, well, Peter Oborne had an axe to grind. Nothing new there!

He wants a free press, not being told what to say by the Barclay Brothers?

So far as the housing crisis goes surely we ought to be building new houses and refurbishing the old ones that languish empty. Also, what about investment property in London, that's snapped up by wealthy companies/individuals, many of whom live overseas. Evidently many properties sit empty because the ridiculous way in which prices rise in the Londond/south east area means it's the easiest way to increase wealth.

How has this thread degenerated into mud slinging between the left and right
I thought it was about ways to help the unfortunate refugees

It is because there are those who see everything in terms of party politics, even human disasters.

www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk/best-sites/migrants-help-best-sites/18108

More useful links, for those who wish to help.

Governments and charities, large and small, have been helping the refugees, and those still in Syria (where they are using starvation as a weapon by destroying bakeries)for over three years now.
I know the situation in the camps is far from ideal but at least they are safer there than they would be inside Syria.
The poor little boys and their mother who drowned had apparently been living in a refugee camp in Turkey for a year so were relatively safe, however must have been caught up in the urgent rush to get to Europe, fuelled by traffickers.
It is the traffickers charging exorbitant sums and sending them across in flimsy rubber dinghies without lifejackets who need to be stopped as a priority.

Some order needs to be brought to the situation and people prioritised according to need.

Today at my charity shop we have managed to sort and pack warm clothing and sleeping bags lots and lots of warm sleepsuits for babies and got donations of nappies from 3 x local supermarkets all will be collected on Wednesday and transported to the collection centre,all the ladies worked tirelessly the past two days giving their time to help us things sorted.Everyone has volunterred to go into work tomorrow and Sunday to make sure we have the enough warm clothing to fill up the container we have hired.

This is an effort to help the refugees inFrance - sorry it's in french but the point is that in other european countries people are offering to take in refugees and receiving some support:
www.commentcamarche.net/news/5866998-un-reseau-pour-aider-les-refugies

I've volunteered to help at our local refugee/asylum seeker support group. One of my daughter's pals is organising a collection of tins/baby clothes/winter clothing for adults and children and has arranged transport to get it to Calais.

Well done, glamma and Iam. I was trying to find out how I could donate English Language course books to the Jungle Library but so far my enquiries haven't been very successful. Does anyone know about this?

We also have empty churches or churches where not many people go....
maybe that could also be a place to house some refugees...