The Jungle Program Prologue

"Zhangal. A Pashto word, which means forest. But this was no forest. It was an old landfill site on the edge of Calais, located between the ferry port and the channel tunnel. 12,000 trucks a day pass through here to get to UK. Every single one could take us to our dream."  —Safi (act one, scene two)

Zhangals can be a place of refuge, a place of solace and solitude. They can also be places of danger, of threats lurking in the shadows. Zhangals are an ecosystem of creatures big and small, an environment equal parts welcoming and foreboding. We can take to the trees for shelter, we can hide in the underbrush or nestle in its arms. But the Zhangal shifts with the seasons; it has a life of its own that does not consider those living beneath its canopy. Similarly, zhangals are bulldozed every day with no thought to the communities that call them home.

Like young lovers carving their initials into the sturdy trunks of trees in the zhangal, the refugees of the Jungle have this place engraved upon their own hearts. Perhaps their stories will leave a mark on you, too.