Southampton Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group

How are things in your city during this pandemic?

My city , Southampton, has changed so much. Barely recognisable. Streets are more empty. High street is virtually closed. People are in lock down.

This pandemic has showed me the worse and the best people have to offer. 

The worse, just a quick view at the general policies that many governments enacted, UK included, showed how lack of preparedness has devastating consequences. Tragic, deadly consequences.

It has also showed me the best, how a concerted effort with one single selfless purpose in mind can accomplish so much. I joined a group, Southampton covid-19 Mutual Aid group. Yes, besides sewing scrubs I am also helping with other requests....

This group started with one single purpose , how can we provide help to people who are self-isolating? At the time, and this group was created over two months ago, it was clear the the government would not be doing much, and that the local government would be lacking resources to provide help to its most vulnerable citizens. And  one single person, by creating this Facebook group, was able to gather more like minded individuals wanting to help, and alongside its army of  growing numbers of volunteers more efforts were raised.  What is really important, is recognising the concept behind it, 'mutual aid'. If as a group we understand that this pandemic does not affect everyone equally - there are some people who are more vulnerable, most importantly the way that we offer support will reflect this. However, it also understands that if we are helping today, we, the members and volunteers of this group, might need help in the future. Therefore this group is about building networks based in deep trust  that will support our communities during this crisis  -  and who knows, maybe even after it!   

Altogether, our group of volunteers were able to create an isolation hotline 07923353365, that is open daily from 8am-8pm. Organically organised, our mutual help group  works daily  and continues to help so many people in Southampton. Volunteers working together apart, by using Facebook groups and WhatsApp, are able to coordinate callers that need help with either prescription pick ups, shopping, dog walking  or just by calling and keeping a lonely person some company over the phone... Our power to help did increase, as we are also able to provide financially struggling people with food boxes. Our hotline volunteers are able to generate food vouchers that are later presented at the local food banks and our caller will receive a food box that will provide them food for one week. And once the food banks are closed (they close by 15h), we have  emergency packages, again generated by the generosity of our volunteers that regularly collect food to later distribute among the people who need it.

And through this group, and working side by side with so many wonderful people  I did recover some hope in the future. The selflessness, the generosity, the kindness of every single individual that is working within this group does not cease to impress me. I am so proud of what we accomplished together, and really glad to see this kindness and the momentum it creates. This is only possible with team work functioning. How do we work?

We have coordinators that manage a pool of volunteers, that are organised by Southampton's council wards:

All this wards have their own Whats App managed by a local coordinator, that posts the request that the hotline receives. This hotline volunteer will answer a call, a text or even whats App message, and annotates the caller's general information  and what he needs help with. This generates a request, that is received by the local Whats App group coordinators. For instances, the coordinator for Harefield ward,  receives a request,  that Mr. S needs a prescription pick up from Lloyd's. This coordinator posts on Harefield Whats App group ' help needed for a prescription pick up from Lloyds'. Within minutes, a volunteer offers to help,  further information is provided privately  to this volunteer, that collects the prescription and delivers it to the caller. Our deliveries follow  guidelines, so each group has a delivery protocol to make the drops of medicines and shopping safely. No volunteer will ever enter the caller's premises, and we are working closely with Southampton City Council, as So:Linked to assure that both caller's and volunteers have the best help available in hand. 

Today the main Facebook group has over 6200 members, the group also has 79 local coordinators and around 300  volunteers actioning requests. Since the group started, we have completed over 2200 requests. That means over 2200 acts of generosity, kindness and selfless care, from strangers, to help strangers. 

This helped me through this very weird and anxious time. Witnessing that so many people are still out there, caring and helping the next one made realise kindness is still very present in our world today. It made me relax and be a little bit less anxious. Just a little bit. 

Find out more here: Southampton Covid19 Mutual Aid Group  

If you would like to contribute you can do so via the Open Collective: SCMAG

NHS: For the love of scrubs

I haven't touched my sewing machine for such a long time now. For so many reasons, but the main one being... no time at all. My priorities however changed a bit lately, as the works shifted abruptly and dramatically with this pandemic.  I have to do a little to help out. And so, my sewing machine left its catacombs and I joined several Facebook groups as a volunteer, For the love of scrubs and a local one, #teamscrubbers.  Have to say there really is an army sewing non-stop to help our struggling NHS. To say  their needs is dire is not enough. As a volunteer I receive daily requests to make more scrubs.

Many years have been since I last sewed! I didn't even remember how to thread it! 

But slowly that knowledge resurfaced, I fed the machine with beautiful green thread and here we go... Firstly, lets try to understand the pattern. The main group luckily had free patterns, and I contacted several companies to print out patterns to distribute along our members. I have to acknowledge the generosity and the help that so many companies are providing our volunteers, by contacting companies by email I was able to source over 10 large prints of the pattern that were distributed to our seamstresses!

So cutting is a large and time consuming bit of the sewing process. Luckily for my next batch of scrubs I wont bee needing to cut, as once again companies aided and a local company laser cut the fabric so I will only have to stitch the pieces together.

Fist step, zigzag so that the fabric doesn't frail... After re-read both tutorial and pattern again.

Stitch pockets... Iron a lot!

Making the neckline was my favourite bit. I had the chance to try out edge stitching. The learning curve process never stops.

And a new way to use my never ended Happy Easter embroidery! I know, it has been so long since I started. And yes, for a crafter-wannabe I never got the chance to make my own pin cushions... Maybe in a few years...

The neckline is a complicated process, we have to stitch, turn cut some nudges, flat iron...

.. and edge stitch.

Edge stitching... Have to say the photos of this post were taken... over 2 weeks! It took me over two weeks to make three sets of scrubs. This next photo was taken a couple days later, still night sewing...

This is my first garment. Really proud of it, even it has so many... many flaws, but mostly because I challenged myself to try out new things and finished it!

I wanted to add a little piece of my flair to the scrub, hoping that whoever receives it knows that it was made from my love of our NHS. And one first of many  mistakes, I stitched the label on the wrong side of the scrub:

And then hemming the sleeves... And that's almost one first top done.

And then the trousers....

I cannot stress how long it took me to make these stets. I do mean how time consuming this process was for me...  It appears easily on photos but the turning and the running around looking for the right pieces when the cutting is done can't be caught on photos... Nor the time staring at the machine thinking... is this the right side??

One piece of advice, kids chalk work wonders to identify both front and back sides... 

Line the trousers, and yes, the back side has a chalk legend as well... Also, coffee... Lots of coffee was consumed alongside the stitching.

Merging the trousers together is not easy at all.... Particularly if you are deciding to use the wrong side to do it.....

And here are three pairs ready to be stitched together.

And again my heart label.

Almost done. just needing to make some buttonholes to thread the cotton thread. 

My buttonholes are terrible looking. I trained before making these, and I cannot stress how an improvement was made. Still these are looking quite terrible!

And the end result. Three sets of scrubs waiting for a NHS staff member to use them. Just pressing to finish these and send them out!

Everyone deals with this pandemic and lock-down differently. I feel that the little I can do is use whatever skills I have to help out, this case by attempting to make scrubs. It does calm down my anxiety, and keeps those unhelpful thoughts away. 

What about you, how are you dealing with this situation?