By Imogen Wall for IRIN News.

LONDON, 9 September 2015 (IRIN) – The Hive Warehouse on the Kingsland Road in east London would normally be empty on a Sunday, but last weekend it was buzzing with activity. A constant stream of cars pulled up outside to unload bags of donated goods. Volunteers carried them upstairs, where dozens more people of all ages and backgrounds were emptying, sorting and repackaging. They ranged from a woman whose family survived the Holocaust to Natalie Bennett, leader of the UK’s Green Party, and a musician who shares a flat with the organisers.

This is CalAid, an initiative to support the 2,000 to 4,000 migrants and refugees currently camped out in Calais. It was founded by 25-year-old Jasmine O’Hara, who, after seeing television reports of the camp known as the Jungle, decided to go there with her brother. The Facebook post she wrote about their visit was shared 65,000 times. “People started asking what they could do to help,” she told IRIN. “So we formed CalAid and said we’d collect donations.”

Across Europe, there has been an upsurge in spontaneous citizen and civil society-led initiatives in response to the refugee crisis. In Macedonia, Gabriela Andreevska goes to the border every day to hand out food and water to the stream of people arriving. In Kos, Kerry Horafiou drives to camps to provide supplies for children through her group, Kos Kindness. In Lesvos, arriving refugees are frequently met not by local officials, but by what Joel Hernandez, a blogger for the Advanced Training Programme on Humanitarian Action (ATHA), calls “an odd and evolving crew of aspiring humanitarians” – local volunteers, activists and tourists wanting to do their bit.