We are Circus to Borders, a grass roots organisation delivering aid and entertainment to refugee camps. We have launched this appeal in response to the dire winter conditions people are living under in refugee camps on the fringes of Europe. The refugee crisis in Europe may be out of the media but tragically it is very much still going on.
We are raising money to gather and transport vital aid including shoes, clothes, blankets and woodburning stoves. On a recent trip to Serbia we saw thousands of people living in a derelict warehouse in temperatures of minus 16 degrees. There is little infrastructure to help refugees there and people are dying as you read this.
We will also be bringing circus and play workshops to the children and young people of the camps. We self fund all our travel and accommodation for the circus part of our work, so money raised here will be just used for practical life-saving aid.
A little more about us:
Born out of a Social Circus project in Bristol called Invisible Youth, we are a grass-roots group of individuals who deliver Social Circus and Play workshops to young people in the refugee camps in Calais, Dunkirk, Belgrade and beyond.
We believe in the importance of laughter and play, and that all refugees deserve a quality of life rather than the doldrum of a basic survival existence.
We also use our collective practical and communication skills to make links with other organisations and to fund-raise and organise and deliver aid, whether it be in the form of silly balloons, plate spin workshops, firewood, shoes or clothes.