In 2022 the local branch of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul operating in a southern English town discovered that a hotel had been repurposed to accommodate asylum seekers. They decided to help.
The offer to help from the SVP was initially turned away and they were told that the hotel only had formal relations with one charity: Care4Calais. Not deterred, Holder and several of the local SVP members joined Care4Calais and got to work.
Recently, I took up an offer to visit the local hotel being used to house asylum seekers in this market town in Berkshire, and met with Hilda Holder, the secretary of the local SVP branch and a formidable force for good in our world.
