CROYDON COMMENTARY: Once all this is over, we can rebuild using the power of communities that has been uncovered through volunteer mutual aid groups, says LAURA WHITTALL
The South Norwood Community Kitchen has been busy delivering hundreds of meals twice each week during the covid lockdown
Covid-19 has laid bare the bones of our communities, who has and who hasn’t, how we are all connected to each other in some way or another.
As many of us are stuck in one place we have become more aware of who is within our immediate vicinity, who the faces really are that we may have passed on the street or seen coming in and out of their front door.
Their lives are laid bare and the reality of who has the resources to support themselves and who doesn’t. The ones that are really vulnerable, the ones that we never knew needed help. It lays on the table all of our preconceptions about people and shows quite clearly how our differences can affect our lives.
Even in times of physical distancing, the social closening has never been stronger, outside of state and official provision, there lives and breathes a rich web of informal and locally organised mutual aid that communities are making for themselves in these troubled times. Continue reading
