Closure of the Calais project and pausing our operations in France

Dear Friends and Supporters,

I am writing to share an important update regarding the Collective Aid France Programme.

After much thoughtful deliberation and consultation with our board of trustees, partners, and team, we have made the difficult decision to close our Calais project and pause our operations in France. This transition will include handing over our current operations, including NFI distribution, to our trusted partners who will remain operating on the ground.

This decision has not been taken lightly and it reflects the challenges we have faced in maintaining consistent and sustainable funding and stock for our work in Calais over several years. As many of you know, our ability to provide uninterrupted support to displaced people depends on stable finances, a reliable income of stock, and constant support from partner organisations, all of which have become increasingly tricky to coordinate as the funding landscape has become more competitive. This is why, despite our best efforts, we have now concluded that we are at a point at which the needs of the people in Calais can now be better met by the wider network of established organisations we have worked alongside for years.

While this is a moment of sadness, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the many achievements of our Calais project over the years. Together, we have distributed essential items, provided critical support to those in need, and contributed to the collective efforts of a remarkable community of organisations. We have been so lucky to be part of such a strong community of solidarity and I will always be grateful for the commitment and solidarity of our supporters, volunteers, and partners that have been so fundamental to the successes of this project.

In the meantime, our work in Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Greece continues, and I invite you to stay engaged through our Winter Fundraiser, where we will be sharing updates and stories from our continuing programmes. Your support will remain crucial as we continue to adapt to meet the evolving needs of people on the move where we continue to work.

I understand this news will come as a disappointment to many, and I am here to answer any questions you may have or to provide additional context. Transparency and dialogue are central to how we navigate these types of decisions, and I warmly invite you to reach out to me directly if you want to discuss more at director@collectiveaidngo.org.

We are so grateful for your understanding, compassion, and solidarity as we take this step forward. Together, all of us have built something extraordinary in Calais, and there is so much to celebrate as we look towards new opportunities.

With heartfelt gratitude,

                                                                                                                           Noah Hatchwell 

Your Questions and Answers: The Closure of the Calais Project

We’ll collate your questions about the closure of the Calais Project and pausing of our operations in France, and respond to the issues raised here.

Why did you start a project in Greece and then close down in Calais a few months later: did you not foresee this lack of capacity?

How were stock levels and finances stable for Greece but not France?

This is a totally understandable concern, but the two projects are quite separated. Our structure at Collective Aid means that we are quite good at generating capacity when needed to operate our projects. Unfortunately, we cannot run our projects on sheer capacity alone - and in general our ability to open and run projects is very strictly reliant on the resources we can attract to each individual project. The majority of our funding, stock and support is pledged by donors to individual projects - and there has never at any point been a central 'pot' of Collective Aid resources that we could allocate autonomously as is common at big INGOs. This means that the annual budget of every project is a reflection of the support that large donors and funders are willing to provide and the attention that each project can attract.

We were invited to open the operation in Greece by multiple actors on the island several months before these resource difficulties presented themselves in Calais - and the leadership team at the time decided to move forward as it was correctly understood that the new Greece operation would not destabilise our capacities at other locations. For this reason, the International Programme continued to dedicate almost all of it's time, capacity and urgency to writing grant applications for Calais all the way until this decision was made, and not doing so for the other projects. When we identified that we had spent over 6 months working to attract long term funder attention to the programme and failed to do so, it was agreed that services will be better off in the hands of larger partner operations that have more sustainable funding and resources.

Our operations in different locations are very different and therefore, as many who have worked with Collective Aid will know, directly comparing the needs we fill, partnerships and services is not really possible. Our services in Greece meet a very different demand to those we once filled in Calais, which means our role in the network of humanitarian actors is simply different. Additionally, our impact in Calais has been greatly reduced for the greater part of a year now due to restrictions created by the state on the work that we do. As such, this was why we identified that Utopia56, Refugee Women's Centre, and L'Auberge des Migrants were better equipped and resourced to meet the NFI needs of people on the move in Calais.

We entirely recognise that it is a terrible shame when the closure of projects is dictated by resource constraints like this - but this is why we are so glad that our partners in Calais with better resources will be able to carry on what we started.

Who are you handing over to? What other organisations are providing NFI/tents, and how will the gap you leave be filled?

We are handing over to a group of organisations including Utopia56, the Refugee Women's Centre, and L'Auberge des Migrants.

We have been working together with these organisations for some time now as part of a common initiative to pool tent stock over winter, and this is why we have agreed to pass over services to them. We have been in contact with the others organisations in Calais as well in order to ensure that as much of our services are handed over as possible by the time we step away.