A COMPASSIONATE mother is urging people to support the arrival of refugee Syrian families in Darlington next year.

Judith Russell, along with others, has formed the Darlington Assistance for Refugees to help ten refugee families who will be placed in Darlington.

Darlington's council leader Bill Dixon announced the families from UNHCR camps will arrive in town in the New Year.

Families with no more than five members will be housed. The government will give the council approximately £8,500 per refugee to cover the costs of helping them.

Darlington council will co-ordinate the families’ arrival - organising benefits, health checks, and English courses or getting into schools.

Ms Russell and her colleague Jen Elliott-Morfott want the group to be fully involved in helping the refugees acclimatise to the town.

Ms Russell, who has a teenage son, said: "We are people who have come together because we care.

“It’s hard to plan because no one really knows what the families will be like or whey they will need. They may have very complex needs and have more than likely been through a truly dreadful ordeal.

"We all have watched the news and see the pictures from the refugee camps and you cant quite believe this is happening in 21st century Europe."

Once the council have notification of the families’ arrival, she will working hard to co-ordinate the response.

Some of the group are planning to learn mentoring skills and one member speaks fluent Arabic.

Ms Russell, a business coach, also made a solo trip to a refugee camp in Calais in September, providing umbrellas and bin bags for a damp, squalid camp housing over 3,000 refugees.

She said: "The camps are grim places and they may have been there for months and months, often with ill health.

“It’s a terrible ongoing situation but we have almost become desensitised to these terrible pictures on our screens. The camps – fleeing in a boat in the middle of the night with babies and toddlers, living without sanitation. The media have lost interest and we are fast approaching winter.

A few days after Christmas Ms Russell will return to the 'Calais Jungle' camp with boots and shoes for barefoot refugees and other donations from the public.

Anyone who wants to make a donation can contact Judith on Judith_russell@hotmail.co.uk.