Communities coming together to help the Elderly and Vulnerable during this national crisis!

The Who Is Olivia foundation created last year to work on mental health issues and body image concerns have in response the CV-19 crisis have put all our resources into a local community initiative and web based volunteer service focussed on helping the elderly and the local authorities in this time of great need.

Now in direct response to the Prime Ministers announcement at 8.30 pm on the 23rd March we are formally launching on Wednesday 25th at 12 noon a new volunteer programme to assist the local authorities within the guidance given by the Government


Volunteer Programme to help the Elderly

Over the past few weeks of the CV-19 crisis it very clear that communities will need to step up to assist Government and Local authorities. We have been developing a self help website which will launch on Wednesday 25th March and which other communities can easily copy and implement.

After the announcement from Boris Johnson re the new measures for the at risk to self isolate for 12 weeks and the remainder of the population to stay at home action is needed to support this both digitally and physically in a responsible way. Therefore I wanted to share with you our local initiative and ask if you the media can look at sharing this to a wider audience who maybe sitting at home wondering what they can do and how they can help!

The Who Is Olivia foundation has built an entirely new website in the past week and are launching a W1 Volunteering Programme - To help the elderly in the W1 area during the coronavirus crisis.

W1 currently is the 2nd most infected area in the country and therefore we will be using all our resources to support the vulnerable during this time which we hope will help to relieve the pressure on the NHS and other support services. We believe together we will overcome this global emergency but it does need the support of everyone.

As freedom of movement for many elderly people is going to be highly restricted and emergency services will be busy fighting the virus on the front line we have created an easy to use website where people can both ask for help and offer help.

www.marylebonevolunteer.org

We are only a small organisation and will be using volunteers and our network of organisations that support wellbeing programs to assist where they have the capacity. We have taken the decision to help from within the location we live like this is both practical and the most efficient way we can operate and respect the self-distancing protocols, and stay at home advice. I would encourage others to do the same by copying the website for their own use if they think it is useful to their community.

The assistance that the elderly or other vulnerable people might need as the virus spreads could be as simple as;

Picking up a prescription from the chemist

Delivering Essential Food Supplies

Walking the Dog

A simple phone call to have a chat – Which is going to be so important from a Mental Health perspective

More information is available on our website

We have taken a digital approach and we will be publicising via FB and Instagram. Many elderly do not use these platforms so we are asking for the help of the media to make people aware of this initiative and how they can sign up for help or to volunteer to provide help.

We are also asking for the media to assist us as we try to help others in whatever way we can. Local TV, Radio and Printed media we believe is the fastest way to make people aware as quickly as possible in this high risk segment and high risk Post Code.

As journalists we know you are all very busy getting the message out and therefore appreciate any help you can give us to help others in what is the most challenging time for all of us.

Yours truly,

Sze Sze Yuan
Founder
Who Is Olivia
Marylebonevolunteer.org

Press Contact - Michael Donald on 07825745213
Email -marylebonevolunteer@gmail.com