Wotton Area Mutual Aid Volunteer Newsletter WAMA NEWSLETTER #526th April 2020 We know that many people will look to family and friends for assistance during the Covid-19 outbreak, and Wotton Area Mutual Aid group is here to make sure that no one is left alone, by connecting people in need, with volunteers who are available to help out. General Info Thanks for being a WAMA volunteer! If you recently signed up, you can access our first 4 newsletters on our facebook page. We hope you are all staying well. It is fantastic to hear the loud clapping coming from homes around the area on a Thursday night. We too would like to extend our gratitude to all key workers and those keeping us safe, looked after and fed at the moment. Please remember to continue to monitor the "request for help" spreadsheet to see if your neighbours need anything. A few people are feeling frustrated that there are never any outstanding tasks. We are seeing that as a good sign! Lots of volunteers who have helped their neighbour before are now just staying in contact and helping directly. We know that because of the lack of jobs, a number of you have stopped looking at the spreadsheet. Please continue to look as and when you can! As of next week, there will be some new, regular jobs being posted - to help with packing boxes, shopping, and delivering our new leaflets. Some people have also stopped looking at the spreadsheet because they aren't sure what the job entails or how they are supposed to help. If this is you, please let us know. We have written a new volunteer helpsheet that we can email over to you. Thanks! WAMA Boxes You've probably seen that we have launched our new "WAMA Boxes". These are essential grocery boxes for those in our community facing financial hardship. Anyone can request one, and we keep their information confidential, rather than putting it onto the main spreadsheet. Last week we delivered to 36 households - 65 adults, 54 children and 6 babies. If you would like to request one yourself, or know a neighbour who may benefit, please CLICK HERE to fill out a form, or call the WAMA number. If requesting for someone else, it is important that you ask their permission first. New Leaflets As WAMA has developed quite a lot over the past few weeks, we are about to distribute a new leaflet detailing the support people can get: general help, picking up prescriptions, WAMA Boxes and the free soup. If you would like to print off any to give to neighbours, please CLICK HERE. Due to local requests, these leaflets will be distributed in Wotton, Wortley, Tresham, Alderley, Charfield, Damery, Cromhall, Tortworth, Wickwar and Nibley. If you are a member of a different local mutual aid network and would like to partner up with WAMA and distribute leaflets and these offers of help in your area - please let us know. We are also putting leaflets into our boxes with other sources of help. Again, if you would like to see one of these CLICK HERE to view/download. If you are following our posts on facebook detailing other support that is available, it would be great if you could share that information with neighbours who aren't on social media. GoFundMe We are so grateful to all of the local businesses, groups, and individuals who have supported our work since the start of the crisis. If you would like to offer financial support (however small) we now have a GoFundMe page that can be accessed below. Lots Happening As we've said, if you are looking at the "request for support" spreadsheet, you may rightly feel that things are quiet. There is a lot going on in the background, and we have smaller groups of volunteers involved in a number of areas: WAMA administrators manning the phones, WAMA Box delivery drivers, prescription deliverers, a team sourcing and distributing PPE, the soup team, the box organisation team, our safeguarding team, publicity volunteers, leaflet distributors, finance controllers and those looking after the interactive map. WAMA is a large group of local volunteers and we want to thank all of you for all you are doing! Supporting Local Businesses We have offered our WAMA volunteer delivery services to local businesses providing essential goods. This is vital for those self-isolating, but also lessens the number of people needing to enter those shops. If this would help your business, but you haven't heard from us - please call the WAMA number. Cotswold Vale Talking Newspaper Our very own WAMA admin - Laura - was featured on this week's Cotswold Vale Talking Newspaper: CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Reminder to share with friends and neighbours: The way to contact Wotton Area Mutual Aid for help is to:
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