Likes to sleigh YES
AND MORE FOR THOSE IN WORKING POVERTY
Other services had so many criteria – mental health issues, hospital treatment, all boxes that had to be ticked and if you didn’t, you were on your tod.”
With the help of Annemarie Sawers, Sharon Devlin and Carol Ann, she set up her own baby bank. She said: “I expected it to be a wee casual thing. We’d maybe help a couple of people a month. Within a month, we had to move out of the garage.”
Her idea, to help families with new babies, grew arms and legs. They still offer new parents a cot, pram and Moses basket. They also help kids to go on school trips and provide uniforms. There’s even a room full of sparkly frocks, smart suits and tiny bow ties for proms, weddings and other big occasions.
Now their clients include women fleeing violence, asylum seekers, the homeless and unemployed. UMAR’S STORY LAST Christmas, asylum seekers Umar Khalid and Anita Rani, both 31, were struggling to buy presents for their boys Mikaal, seven, and Daniyaal, five. Until their visas are cleared they are not allowed to work and live on £36 each a week. Umar, from Pakistan, said: “Kids want to play with new toys but they’re really expensive. The baby bank gave us brand new stuff and a good quantity. It was a great help. We had enough toys. “We told the boys they were gifts from Santa.” Umar and Anita now volunteer at Glasgow’s No1 Baby and Family Support Service, sorting donations and making deliveries. Alba, the world’s only albino orangutan, has been released into a remote Borneo jungle more than a year after she was found starving in Indonesia.