Thanks to your beautiful support, Caroline Cottet has now become our first ever official Director of French Operations, helping us to oversee all our partnership works and endeavours on the ground…

Caroline has been a light to us from the very beginning, as founder of the RWC and so much more…

The global pandemic caused by Covid-19, halted members of the O’s Refugee Aid Team (ORAT) from travelling out to the refugee camps in northern France. The effort to shield loved ones, and safeguard any volunteers wishing to travel out with us, meant a ceasing of our regular ways of working inclusive of quick trips across the Channel, and a major rethinking of what more we can do.

A singular question faced us: how could we go on practically assisting our teams on the ground, if we couldn’t travel or help get goods out physically?

With such a huge drop in volunteer numbers in the camps, how could we forge a physical presence on the ground without being there ourselves?

The answer: the one and only Caroline Cottet!

It is thanks to Caroline that ORAT in its very first few years, found ways to support and strengthen new projects like Maison Sesame.

Those of you who already know our teams and works, will know that Caroline Cottet is the founder of the Refugee Women’s Centre and Maison Sesame, and a woman who has been a much beloved guide, adviser and greeter to all our teams and volunteers over the past six years. It’s one of the reasons she was appointed to become our Field Coordinator in March 2021.

Fast forward to January 2022, and following her ongoing efforts and excellent works on our behalf, the ORAT Board could not help but wish for Caroline to accept our proposal to become Director of French Operations. Which she did,  as of January 2022!

Thanks to all donors and our beautiful readers of The Boy at the Back of the Class, Caroline will be working with us two days a week, to act as our hands, hearts, voice and official representative.

And we could not be more excited, nor more grateful.