POSSIBILITIES TO PLAY

Calais, March 25th 2026

It was changeable late March weather - hail, some sunshine, dark grey skies, and finally a rainbow.

To ground our selves back in Calais we visited several of the informal living sites, as well as the fields of large rocks placed to deter people displaced in the city from settling for the night. We noticed how the landscape has changed once again.

This afternoon in the day centre @calais.exilessc The Community Table was used to the full. In discussion with the coordination team we were located in a new position in the main space. Collectively we activated the table by first using the materials ourselves. Knowing to trust the process, more than 40 teenage boys and men slowly found their way to the table, enjoying the crisp detail in the slides through the retro viewers, carefully constructing miniature buildings and little home scenes, lining up and revving up the toy trucks - everyone sitting side by side around the table. It was heartwarming to see how engaged people were in play.

The day centre itself was very busy, with the vast majority of people using it from Sudan, with high numbers of young unaccompanied teenage boys.

Although Sudan is little in the news, it is now the largest displacement crisis in the world: around 5 million children have been forced from their homes while 17 million are requiring humanitarian assistance (ref: @savechildrenuk).

Tomorrow we return to our fortnightly online psychosocial support group for the staff team @greenkordofan in Yida Refugee camp in South Sudan. There, in spite of immense challenges, over 1000 children are supported through sports, personal development and the fundamental and hopeful possibilitIes to play.

Words by Bobby Lloyd & Miriam Usiskin.