It was a challenging time for some of our clients due to the recent coronavirus pandemic that made it extremely difficult and, in some cases, impossible for the majority of them to access or provide food and necessities for themselves and their families. As a charitable organisation that supports these women, we put a call out to several organisations and individuals for any help and/or assistance that could be rendered to help provide them and their families the basic necessities to sustain them through those hard times.
We were pleasantly surprised that quite a number of people, companies and businesses answered our call and rallied round to help by generously donating money, food and various other life-enhancing items for our clients and others within the community, through the Her Centre, to sustain and support them through the pandemic period.
Her Centre would like to express their heartfelt gratitude and thanks to:
- Berkeley Group for donating mobile phones to our client’s. We want to especially thank Carolina who helped to coordinate this with Berkeley’s. We used the phones to give to two clients so far who had no mobile phones and our 3 befrienders so that they can support women who are now safe but still need informal support. One client said how grateful she is to have the support as she felt so isolated at home.
- Crissy from the Royal Arsenal residents for sorting out a laptop and mobile phone donation to our client.
- Grace Foundation (Jennifer and her team for the toiletry donations to our clients)
- Lucy Murphy and her neighbours for food donations and a microwave to our client
- Emilie West, neighbours, and Her Centre trustees for their donations (food, household goods and toiletries)
- Alex Murphy from No More, for donating shower gels, creams, make up etc., from Body Shop
- Maria Rumbol for donating toiletries and makeup
- Samantha Woodgate (Ex Her Centre Trustee)
- Morrisons (Rosemarie – Community Champion Thamesmead)
- Clockhouse team and Her Centre volunteers for delivering food donations and supplies to our clients
Below are some quotes from our clients who have benefited from all the donations:
“Yes, it does it helps my money go a bit further. Especially as my younger daughter’s food is expensive as she only eats gluten-free food”
“It helps a lot and at the moment I need all the support I can get”
“It helps to make sure we have a cooked meal. And have enough food especially with the children being at home all this time”
“It has helped me very much. Not only the food but also other things, toiletries like soap”
“There is always something I can make out of the delivery. Always find a way to make a meal out of the canned food and dry food. I make my list weekly after Thursday now because there is always something, I can get off list because I already have it delivered.
We are extremely grateful for the support you have provided, and we would like you to know that your selfless donations and support has had a positive impact on the quality of lives of our clients. This is evident in the increase we have recently observed, in a number of our women who now feel more confident to engage our services and that of our other partner agencies.
The donations of mobile phones have also enhanced the ability and ease at which our clients can increase engagement with our support network and improve their reach in terms of contact with other partner agencies that can also provide them with additional support.
We would like to thank you once again for all your commitment, generosity and support.