Dunkirk 29/1/25
We began the day by walking across the vast sandy Dunkirk beach, blue sky above, breathing in fresh sea air to ground ourselves before joining @medecinsdumonde to support their work on the edge of the town.
Arriving at the site, the weather shifted into a grey expanse. The ground was sodden, any footwear quickly becoming caked with mud. The MdM mobile clinic and psychosocial activities van found a place amid the other organisations providing vital services to people on the move. We struggled to place our large world map, and eventually used our old tablecloth map, draping it across the front bonnet of the van. Immediately a small group of young men gathered, finding their location and where they had travelled from.
Due to a massive living site clearance by the police this week there were fewer people around but we were busy across the afternoon. This challenging place is like a remote airport lounge for those waiting to cross to the UK. We met people on the move from different places. We were asked, ‘do you have a whistle for when I’m in the middle of the sea?’ and: ‘is London in England or England in London?’ Two men anticipating their onward journeys.
We worked inside and outside the van alongside our French colleagues. The View Masters were very popular. We had been given reels of the 1958 World Fair in Belgium, itself just miles from where we were standing. The old but crisp bright images were such a contrast in this context that they briefly caught people’s attention and brought interest & smiles - surprising, alternative views to the bleak landscape.
Two psychologists came to sit with us in the psychosocial van while waiting to see the doctor. They described their own psychosocial work, trainings they had attended and facilitated and why they had had to leave their country. For a moment we were a small group of peers exchanging ideas. The tools we use resonated with their own experiences, as practitioners and as human beings living through displacement. We asked how they keep up their own resilience? ‘We walk alot and focus on breathing.’
Words by Miriam Usiskin & Bobby Lloyd.
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