Summary: <br> Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jannerboy62?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick Fewings</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/search/photos/love-won!?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unsplash</a><br> <br> <br> <br> Hello and welcome to the refugee voices Scotland podcast, my name is Ken Gordon. This episode features Lyndsay McDade. Mum and a refugee volunteer many times over, particularly in camps in France. <br> <br> <br> <br> She also has a lot of knowledge and experience of how our system deals with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and has direct experience of the asylum processes by looking after a young person going through the asylum process.<br> <br> <br> <br> Lyndsay has a strong message for us all. Stay tuned to the end for some news!<br> <br> <br> <br> -0-<br> <br> <br> <br> Transcript<br> <br> <br> <br> K: I’m here with Lyndsay McDade, hello Lynsey!<br> <br> <br> <br> L: Hello, Ken. <br> <br> <br> <br> K: Lyndsay, we caught up because I thanked you for following our Refugee Voices Scotland Twitter. I think this is a lesson that when someone starts to follow you, you should thank them for it? <br> <br> <br> <br> L: Definitely, and it was really unusual because normally you don’t get a message like that, you stood out!<br> <br> <br> <br> K: Oh, great! All listeners – if you want people to follow you then get in touch – thank them, be kind. Lyndsay, you got in touch and said you have quite a lot of experience around the refugee world if you like, with refugees in Dunkirk and this is why we’re here. You’ve agreed to have a wee chat about it. <br> <br> <br> <br> L: Yes, well we were talking on Twitter and talking afterwards about how volunteers, and people working in particular with young asylum seekers and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, it’s such a small world and everything is so interconnected. What happens when you volunteer in France quite often comes back to Scotland, and comes back to your life outwith France as well. <br> <br> <br> <br> K: So how did you start? Where did it all start for you?<br> <br> <br> <br> L: I’m a Mum, I’ve got two little girls. And in 2015-ish, I kept watching all the things on the news and I kept seeing pictures. And I kept thinking to myself – if I was in that position, God I’d really want someone to help me, there needs to be support there. If I was putting my children on those horrible, rubber dinghies and getting to safety in whatever way I possibly could, even if that was so dangerous in itself, then I would really hope someone was there at the other end. <br> <br> <br> <br> To support me, to help provide me with what I need, to help me get on my feet, to be independent and empowered, and to be able to live my life in safety. <br> <br> <br> <br> So after lots of talking about it (it took a while!), and working with some asylum groups in Glasgow and in Scotland doing bits and bobs, I decided to go to France. So I went into the camps in Dunkirk first. It was only supposed to be for a couple of days! But then it wasn’t just a couple of days, and then I went back home, and I went back again. And that was the sort of running themes of things. I had to go back again, and again, and again. <br> <br> <br> <br> Because it’s a funny place, Dunkirk – I don’t know whether it’s the same for all refugee camps, whilst you’re seeing the absolute worst of despair, trauma and difficulties – you also see the sheer resilience of the young people in my case, but the people that you’re helping and you’re supporting. It’s that sort of blend of complete despair versus utter resilience that’s just fascinating and...
