WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Please help us continue to provide vital support now to Battersea residents during this unprecedented Coronavirus crisis.
Please donate whatever you can afford via the Big Give and your donation will DOUBLED by our friends at The Topinambour Trust. Help us to provide basic necessities such as food, medicine, practical support, reassurance and a friendly ear to our community.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Please make a donation now and your generous gift will be doubled!
As you can imagine, Covid-19 has made the plight of the elderly, less well-off, disadvantaged and breadline-earners in Battersea even worse. More than ever they need help.
In turn, the pandemic is forcing our staff and volunteers to either self-isolate, stay away and reluctantly stop providing much-needed, essential face-to-face services in the Battersea area.
The good news is we are fighting back, reviewing how we can more efficiently deliver support in innovative ways (using the telephone and technology e.g. WhatsApp, Zoom and Skype), and making big adjustments to the way we work.
Even better, we have found a match-funding opportunity where any valuable donation you make will be generously doubled, thanks to hugely welcome support from The Topinambour Trust.
We estimate 15-25% of Battersea’s population (the elderly, those in poor physical/mental health, refugees, those in low-paid, insecure work etc) will be vulnerable to the effects of social isolation and poverty, due to the Coronavirus lockdown (Census, 2011; GLA mid-2016).
This will result in local people not having access to basic necessities such as food and medicines, being lonely and isolated, facing debt and financial issues, experiencing family/relationship problems (including domestic violence), let alone health issues and more.
Your support will enable us to respond, adapt and refocus our community work so that we can better support our members/users (300+elders, 250+refugee young people and their families, 100+ESOL (English) learners and 45+ community partners) in this time of crisis.
“I’ve just called Mary (a local elder) and all is well. She suffers from anxiety and has memory issues, so I think it’s a bit of a pressure cooker situation at home. She does have food but is scared it will run out. We’ve got the Battersea Angels round!” Sarah and our Elders team are making daily calls to 80+ local elderly residents checking they’re alright and providing a friendly ear.
Your support will also help us to coordinate the Battersea community response to Coronavirus with local partners such Battersea Coronavirus Angels, the Big Local SW11 Alliance and the Wandsworth Voluntary Sector Partnership. Find out more here.
Donate online here and your gift will be doubled.
So if you donate £25 to KLS then The Topinambour Trust matches your donation with £25 = doubling your donation to £50 + Gift Aid. Any amount can be matched to help support local people during this Covid-19 crisis. So please ‘Double your Donation’ today.
Thank you so much for your vital support. It will make a real difference so that we can provide the services and support local people in Battersea need during these difficult times.
If you’d like to get more involved then do drop us a line on 020 7223 2845 and [email protected]
Tracy (our Admin & Premises Manager) took a call last night from a worried man in Felixstowe who has a 92-year-old sister living up the road from us in Battersea. We didn’t know her. However, she’s only recently come out of hospital and her neighbours are elderly too. He’d not heard from her and was getting increasingly worried. We immediately got a Coronavirus Angel out to knock on her door and she was OK. She’d just left her phone off the hook. We’ll be checking on her again.
For me this typifies our approach at KLS. We’re working together to support local people however best we can. We will continue to do this in the coming weeks ahead by adjusting our services to telephone and online support, in new and creative ways.