Calais Light is an Essex based charity dedicated to supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Calais and in the UK. They are seeking volunteers from church communities in Essex and East London and have reached out to the Diocese of Chelmsford for help.
The inspiring story below has been provided by Calais Light and is about Elisabeth Tanner who was part of a Roman Catholic Church in East London. Calais Light would very much welcome volunteers from our own Church Communities. Find out how you can help.
Elisabeth Tanner
How one person can inspire a Parish
And make a difference
We have all heard the phrase ‘it takes a village’ and that’s true but what about the impact ONE person can make on a family, a Parish, an organisation and ultimately to 100s and 100s of people she never actually met. That person was Elisabeth Tanner. One person whose life is worth celebrating and proof that the work of one, (until now) unacknowledged volunteer can touch the lives of many.
Linchpin
For her family, Elisabeth was a linchpin. For the Roman Catholic Parish of St Edward the Confessor in Romford, she was at the heart of the Parish as their longtime Parish Administrator. For Calais Light, a small Essex based refugee charity, Elisabeth was one of their most loyal volunteers and a cornerstone of its growing success.
Founded in 2017, by Mary Stretch, Calais Light is a fully Registered Charity, with 3 separate divisions, each focused on promoting social inclusion for refugees. It sends ‘weekend only’ car-sharing convoys of ordinary people with a ‘heart for refugees’ to Calais, to volunteer with charities giving practical support to refugees and the displaced. Calais Light acts like a mini-travel agency - they book everything, to make it easy for volunteers to say ‘yes’ to vital humanitarian aid work. It sources large donations of food, toiletries & brand new, stylish, perfectly fitting high quality clothing from global brands to meet refugees’ basic needs, as well as helping them fit into society. In Essex, Calais Light Volunteer teams in their Befriending Hubs teach useful, situational English & help UK refugees build & practise their English language skills to speed independence & social integration. They’re setting up social activities to help refugees & local residents get to know each other more. Everything designed to grow public compassion towards refugees and to help refugees become an integral & accepted part of their local UK community.
Elisabeth was there from the start.
Mary says:
“Calais Light runs on the commitment, passion and drive of volunteers and is seeking more volunteers. It is not easy to recruit for & run a charity that connects with people from all over the UK, brings them simultaneously to one jumping off point in Essex, transports them to France by sea, organises the right kind of aid work & gets them all home safely in 3 days. The administrative & logistical challenges are huge, let alone all the other ways in which a charity needs to be compliant & active from fundraising to marketing & design work. I needed someone who cared about the vision AND the detail as much as I did. I suddenly got a call from Elisabeth. She told me quietly but with grace that her strength lay in admin. She had heard I was desperate for help in this area & that she would like to offer her services - not just be a convoy regular. It was like manna from heaven. Her organisational skills, calm manner, firm emails, ability to plan & simultaneously anticipate & solve a range of problems made Calais Light what it is today”.
Practical Help
Planning convoys for 30 volunteers from all over the UK included booking the ferries, and accommodation, vetting and managing the volunteers, keeping passport records, sending data to NGOs, emailing out instructions & itineraries, organising drivers and keeping all up to speed. This is where Elisabeth excelled and complemented the skills of Mary. They were a two-person force of nature and ploughed through multiple obstacles to get the first convoys off the ground. Looking back after 27 further convoys, now run with a streamlined process in place, all can be traced back to all the heavy lifting done by Elisabeth in the early days.
Mary remembers:
“She had an unflustered, lucid approach to planning - which quickly created a smoother service. I could never overstate her contribution to Calais Light in those days. I miss her total commitment & passion to us & to supporting refugees daily. To care as much as a Founder is quite a thing!! And she did!”
Parish Advocate
Elisabeth travelled to Calais often, to grasp the reality of the arduous & shocking conditions experienced by the refugees there and used this poignant and distressing experience to spread the word among friends/ family and her fellow Parishioners.
Pretty soon she had roped in her whole family as Convoy volunteers, husband, son, daughter, and sister. Moreover, as a Catholic Parish Secretary Elisabeth had a vast network - she was known by thousands of people. Her gentleness & sweetness, coupled with her determination to develop more compassion & help towards refugees was infectious. Many people from her parish became devoted volunteers. The Coffee Morning Group never travelled but still fundraise for Calais Light. Talks are given on the charity’s work. Bedding & furniture come from worshippers to help UK refugees settle in dispersal accommodation. Her impact is ongoing, constant & incredible.
Family & Legacy
Elisabeth had serious heart problems. Yet her commitment was never more apparent than when she went in for planned surgery in December 2019. Her family remembers that her last words to the anaesthetist before going into theatre, was to: ‘hurry up & do a good job and get it over with quick’ as she had so much to do, planning the next convoy for Calais Light. Sadly, Elisabeth died unexpectedly during the 6-hour surgery.
This was a huge loss to all who knew her, as well as all who didn’t. But her legacy continues. Her daughter Caitlin created the original Calais Light website and fundraising pages and has been an Advocate for the charity, speaking from the pulpit on our behalf.
Father Dominic Howarth, Parish Priest of St Edward the Confessor, Romford says:
“Elisabeth served with my predecessor, Fr Tom Jordan, for over a decade. I knew her family through ministry in the Brentwood Catholic Youth Service, and I could see Elisabeth’s faith and dedication in them, and in her work in Romford. When Fr Tom became ill, Elisabeth helped him immensely; eventually and tragically, they died within a few months of each other.
"Elisabeth was a powerhouse of organisation, kindness and prayer, her work with Calais Light was a natural extension of her concern for the marginalised. She is deeply missed in the parish, and it has been a great blessing to welcome her daughter Caitlin to speak about Calais Light, continuing the work in memory of her mother.
"Before Romford, I served in Basildon, and I visited what was then the ‘Calais Jungle’ on numerous occasions. I saw the need for the work of Calais Light, and the dignity, strength, skill and patience of the refugees. I pray for a change of heart by those who lead our country; to see refugees not as ‘a problem to be solved’ but human beings with great talent and in great need, to be welcomed as Jesus asks us to do when he says, ‘Welcome the stranger’. This is exactly the faith that Elisabeth lived and witnessed to others.”
Can you help?
Elisabeth Tanner provided a true example of living action doing God’s work and making a difference to the lives of many. She didn’t just “talk the talk”; she made a practical and tangible difference using her skills and inspired others to do similar. She mobilised an entire Parish, by not keeping silent about her cause. She put the building blocks in place for a fledgling charity that is now thriving. She was a cornerstone and helped create that village of support.
Calais Light still needs volunteers right now to support our social & teaching work with refugees in N E Essex & London. We need more people like Elisabeth. Can you follow in her footsteps? Ask us how!
Email to join us at calaislight@yahoo.com