Can you help make a real difference?

I’m interrupting my account of our time in Carcassonne to ask my readers if they are willing to help make a difference to a real person’s life.

I have mentioned the charity Phone Credit for Refugees (PC4R) before – it is a small charity that I support, started when one man went to “the Jungle” in Calais and wondered how to make a difference for these people who were in such desperate situations. You can find out more on these pages

James came up with the idea while volunteering at the refugee camp in Calais known as The Jungle.  After talking regularly to people within the camp he realised that phone credit was a lifeline for many – and something he could help with from his home in Norfolk!

In the beginning, the process was very simple. James created a Facebook group, and added all his friends and some of the refugees he had met while volunteering. His goal was to have his close contacts provide phone credit to the handful of refugees he had come to know so well. As time passed, news of the group spread through the camp.  More and more refugees began to request top ups. Simultaneously, new donors joined and the group flourished.

Today, the group has almost 65,000 members, has completed almost 100,000 tops ups, and has raised over a million pounds. The support given has expanded to cover refugees across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Every Friday, on Facebook, there is the “Friday Conga” – supporters donate via these pages, then make a comment on the FB page. With the algorithms that are a mystery to me, the more comments there are, the more people see the page. We are encouraged to invite our FB friends to join, hoping that more money can be raised. Even if you can’t donate, a comment on the post will help do something magic to those algorithms. Every week hundreds of refugees and migrants are given the opportunity to contact their families, to access support, advice, emergency help, with the gift of phone credit.

This week the Friday Conga will be very special – because an anonymous supporter has offered to match the amount raised (up to the value of 10,000$ . That is amazing! JP writes:

This is a huge opportunity and also a huge challenge. $10,000 is a massive amount of money, more than double what we would raise on any ordinary Conga. To raise that amount and take full advantage of the donation matching offer is going to take an extra special effort from everyone in this community. If we manage to do it however then the pay off is going to be game changing. We could end up with a funding buffer of two or three weeks, enough to keep our wholesaler accounts filled at all times and to know 100% that things will still be OK even if we don’t quite raise enough on any given week. Of course the pressure to keep raising enough money will still be there as we know from experience that safety buffers can disappear very quickly. Whether we’re able to hold onto a safety buffer or not, raising a grand total of over £15,000 like we have the chance to do next week will equate to almost 2000 extra people being able to receive help.

I’m not friends with my readers on Facebook, so I’m asking for your support now. Even if you can’t afford more than £2 (minimum donation on Just Giving) please give that. And if you can’t do that, please find their page on Facebook (Phone Credit for Refugees & displaced persons), join the group and at least make a comment on the Friday Conga to boost the algorithms.

If you never donate again that’s OK, but this week, please can you find it in your heart to donate? ANYTHING donated between Friday 14th- Sunday 16th July.(GMT) will be counted in the total. This is so important in a world where refugees and migrants are vilified, hated and discriminated against, can my readers show love and support?

If you want to copy & paste this post onto your own blog, please feel free to do so. Some of you have many, many more readers and followers than I do, and can reach more people who might be inclined to help.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.