Let’s pull together to help in virus crisis
AGROUP is urging people to come together and support each other through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Covid-19 Southport & Formby Facebook Support Group was set up by Gillo Newsham to start helping local residents.
It was established just before Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people to work from home, stay out of pubs and restaurants and avoid all non-essential physical contact.
Gillo said: “I saw that people were reaching out to help each other and I wondered how we could do this more effectively? How could Southport and Formby respond to the coronavirus? The same as in almost any crisis, by turning to our community.
She added: “I know that social media and technology is a boon in times like this, but some elderly and vulnerable people don’t have access to it.
“So although we are organising on Facebook, the plan is to be practical.
“We need the group to organise this.
“I am hoping that we can set up WhatsApp groups to organise locally.
“I would like to see people getting to know who their neighbours are and checking – from a safe distance – that they are okay.
“We are an independent group but have signed up to a network of Mutual Aid support groups across the country, so we can share and learn with them.”
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Southport
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Formby organisation is among more than 90 which have been set up online, with volunteers co-ordinating via WhatsApp and Facebook groups and offering people in self-isolation help with shopping, dog walking and picking up prescriptions.
They are all being coordinated nationally by Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK.
As well as practical support the groups are offering phone calls with people who are self-isolating due to infection or increased vulnerability.
Gillo said: “I am from Southport and I love the warmth and friendliness of people up here. The response to the group has been tremendous and we are open to everyone.
“I want it to be a place where we can find positive solutions to what is coming. This pandemic is unprecedented and people are worried.
“Coming together, providing support, communication and the correct information on what to do, can help us all feel more connected and help us cope with whatever we have to face. We can all do a little bit to help others and ourselves.”
Anna Vickerstaff, one of the coordinators of the national network, said: “No matter what we look like, where we live, or how much money we have, getting sick reminds us that at our core we are all just human.
“And in every country it’s the old, the sick and those already struggling who will be affected worse.”