The Hygiene Bank Waveney
HBW collects donations of essential hygiene items and distributes them to charities throughout Waveney to support vulnerable members of our community experiencing hygiene poverty. The Tesco funding was used to purchase those items most needed by local vulnerable people during the pandemic.
Recipient of the grant The Hygiene Bank Waveney said; “When the pandemic started, our donations plummeted almost overnight but our community partners were still in need of hygiene products – and some even told us the need became more acute. The funding has allowed us to buy products to deliver to the community directly to make up for the drop-in donations. We couldn’t be more grateful – without the funding we don’t know how we would have continued to serve the most vulnerable people in our area.”
More information about the Hygiene Bank Waveney.
Volunteering Matters – Ipswich
The organisation that is working towards a society where everyone can participate in their local community through volunteering and social actions. They believe that everyone can play a role in their community and should have the chance to participate. They build projects and programmes to reflect this and focus on the needs of four communities; young people, disabled people, families and older people.
Volunteering Matters in Ipswich used the funding to translate key health information and family support resources to help those who have English as a second language to get the advice they needed during the pandemic.
Shivani Patel, Fundraising Assistant Volunteering Matters, said; “In Suffolk, thanks to support from Tesco COVID-19 Community Funding, our volunteers are helping at-risk families in Ipswich that are potential the most isolated to connect with other parts of our community, creating new alliances and friendships, reducing the likelihood of young people being neglected and supporting families access to support from specialist partners such as money advice (that would otherwise go unnoticed). Family packs have been created and delivered by staff and include activities for children (for reception age to year 6), resources for families and useful health and wellbeing tips. The family packs will help parents maintain their families wellbeing, ensure they feel supported and increase protective factors in the home. So far, 200 children and family packs have been delivered.”
A beneficiary of their scheme said, “I would be doing a whole lot of nothing otherwise. The activities are an escape, and they take my mind off other things.”
Find out more about Volunteering Matters.
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospice
EACH offer care and support to children and young people with life-threatening conditions and support families across Suffolk. They offer families flexibility and control over where their children receive care and support.
They said:
“Our care team are working tirelessly to care for our nation’s most defenceless individuals during the spread of Coronavirus, however, its impact has reduced our ability to raise funds dramatically which has a direct impact on the services we can deliver. Therefore, this funding helps our current core services continue, which includes end of life care, symptom management, emergency day care, crisis ventilation care and online emotional support to families. It will allow our multi-disciplinary team to continue these services and give a lifeline to children and families during this frightening time.
“We could not be more grateful to wonderful supporters like Tesco for helping us to survive an initial devastating drop in income, the support that we have received has helped us to support families at home by phone and online, having rapidly developed our knowledge and expertise in delivering services using virtual technology.”