Rose Westwood has been leading teams to Africa for several years through our partnership with Link 4 Life. She is also one of the leaders of Hands at Work UK. It is her passion to live out what she has learnt in Africa here in the UK. Recently, she had the opportunity to do that because of Covid-19.
"This week I had the strong sense that I was at a Care Point in Africa when, in fact, I was a mile from home. It was an unusually warm day in winter and the trees were bare of leaves. There was rough, open ground beyond and a cockerel was crowing nearby. There were two temporary buildings, one a shipping container, and someone had put plastic garden chairs outside on the rough ground.
Missing was the smell of wood fire, the sound of worship and the children playing.
I had volunteered to help at our local Food Bank because the volunteers (people like Hands at Work volunteers, George and Sheila Green), who had been serving the most vulnerable in our community for years, had been forced to self-isolate because of their age.
The Food Bank, where three days’ essential food is given to people who otherwise would be unable to eat, was in danger of closing at a time when, due to the coronavirus, more people than ever are at risk of unstable employment and lack of sick pay.
I had the same feeling I get when visiting a CBO for the first time – the heightened sense of awareness, knowing that the place and the people are new to me. In addition to this, I needed to distance myself socially, use hand sanitizer, and not eat, drink or go to the toilet (the church on site is locked up!).
I learned the procedure, the documentation, and the packing of goods according to the size of the family, all the time wearing gloves and keeping away from the other volunteers.
Meanwhile, the cockerel crowed and the warm sun shone in this little care point in our community.
We have so much to learn from our Care Workers about how to serve our communities in these difficult times. Will we be able to step up?”