Care Packs Bring Comfort to the Community

Categories: Past Event Articles
Monday April 06 2020
A 74 grandmother with acute asthma and no family nearby, a 25 year old single mother with an autistic child; a young man on Universal Credit, struggling financially and with underlying health issues: these are just a fraction of the people who residents of South London have been blessed enough to help over the past few weeks.
The food care pack project was set up a few weeks ago by Afsha Mohamed, a MEND volunteer and her friend, Rifka Lodhi, who were eager to come up with a simple way to help the elderly and vulnerable in South London.
Initially, twenty five food care packs were made and what started as a two member team effort has quickly grown into a whole community effort with a proliferation of groups. Food item donations and deliveries are now being done by neighbours, mosques, church groups, mutual aid groups and various organisations who are all working organically and collaboratively, in many cases casting aside the unecessary red tape of pre Covid-19 days.
The foods care packs have been greatly received. Below are just some of the comments from recipients, encouragement if any were needed, for all us to do as much as we can to serve our communities in these testing times.
“Hello my good people.A very blissful afternoon to you all.May l salute you ladies for your kind deeds. I truly appreciate your help, support and forever grateful.Stay blessed and safe”
“May Allah bless you sisters for what you are doing. I will be keeping you in my prayers.”
“Hello, l trust you’re doing very well. I don’t know whether you are a mother or not. But just to let you know what you doing for mankind is mothering. Therefore, l say may God continue to bless you all for your time and help in during this difficult and challenging times.”🙏🏼🙏🏼❤💙
It’s a project that has really bought the community together and touched the hearts of many with one local resident saying:
“I’ve been following your actions here. I’m 64 years old looking after my 88 year old mother. I follow your texts and every day it makes me happy and hopeful to live in a community with you around. I’m currently isolating so I can visit and look after my mother . You cheer me up no end . I call you the army of angels in the streets of London . I’m so proud of your caring generation . My generation is looking at you with admiration and huge love . You make your parents and all of us so proud. Well done and God look after every single one of you . Full of gratitude thank you’
This is just a small snapshot of the impact of these actions. This is indeed the time for us all to band together, cross the boundaries of our groupings and realise how much we all need each other.
This project has now teamed up with SWAN (Southern Women’s Aid Network) and MindWorks to continue providing food packs and emotional support to those that need it in South West London. Please use this link to make a referral for anyone that may need a food pack: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1M1ROwuAoDQoTasDn-3FquPr3tampngcSYDXIYNjXeURtmw/viewform
For volunteering opportunities in South London, please contact on: [email protected]