A few days ago, the NHS and the Prime Minister put out a call for 250,000 volunteers to "help up to 1.5 million people who have been asked to shield themselves from coronavirus because of underlying health conditions" There's been an enormous response, they've got twice as many volunteers as they asked for and at a guess, 3-4 times as many as they hoped for.
The job of organising everything has been given to Royal Voluntary Service which older readers will remember as the WRVS. This is probably a good choice as with their background in providing "Meals On Wheels" there's a lot about the current mission that they should thoroughly understand.
It's noteworthy that one of the roles they want volunteers for is to make phone calls to people isolated by COVID-19, a role that can be open to just about everyone - including those whose health or disability precludes rushing around delivering food.
Perhaps the most significant challenge will be coping with the huge level of volunteer response. The demand for the various services may be quite low to start with and while that might sound like a good thing, keeping volunteers "sensibly busy" is a keystone of good volunteer management. If volunteers are given too little opportunity to actually contribute, they can become disillusioned with the mission, the RVS and volunteering in general. The answer is for RVS to be supremely well organised to use these volunteers well - I wish then luck!
PS: The volunteering sign up page is here
Friday 27 March 2020
Sunday 22 March 2020
Viral Walking
I'm not 70 but the official advice is for me to act like I am. Normally (as regular readers will know) I do a lot of dancing but in the current circumstances, I intend to slightly expand my other form of exercise - walking. This is usually solitary anyway, I'm a bit of a random explorer. and if I'm careful about "social distance", I can keep physically and mentally fit enough to give me the best chance of coming through the crisis without endangering anyone else.
So my first walk a couple of days ago was over the lower slopes of Wickridge Hill near Stroud. The first challenge was the approach of an unruly child on a scooter complete with parent. Fortunately the road was wide enough that I could just cross over. Next, I met two greyhounds leading humans. Everybody moved to their side of the road so that was fine.
On to narrow wooded steep path. The first thing I did was pause, squint up the path and listen to detect anyone else coming the other way. That was OK but there was a handrail on the steeper bits so out with some gloves. These also came in useful down at Beeches Green where I needed to push the button on the pedestrian crossing.
Yesterday, I went to Toadsmoor. I'd occasionally used the busy narrow "main" road with alternating directional traffic lights that leads from the A419 up through Eastcombe but had long noted the area to the west that the map showed to be full of contours, lakes and woods. The few people I met kept their distance so although I didn't bring back any new experiences or insights, there are pictures ...
So my first walk a couple of days ago was over the lower slopes of Wickridge Hill near Stroud. The first challenge was the approach of an unruly child on a scooter complete with parent. Fortunately the road was wide enough that I could just cross over. Next, I met two greyhounds leading humans. Everybody moved to their side of the road so that was fine.
On to narrow wooded steep path. The first thing I did was pause, squint up the path and listen to detect anyone else coming the other way. That was OK but there was a handrail on the steeper bits so out with some gloves. These also came in useful down at Beeches Green where I needed to push the button on the pedestrian crossing.
Yesterday, I went to Toadsmoor. I'd occasionally used the busy narrow "main" road with alternating directional traffic lights that leads from the A419 up through Eastcombe but had long noted the area to the west that the map showed to be full of contours, lakes and woods. The few people I met kept their distance so although I didn't bring back any new experiences or insights, there are pictures ...
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| Garden wall in Eastcombe |
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| Kitlye |
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| Toadsmoor valley |
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| A curious structure that makes it look like the sheep have acquired a hatstand? |
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| Toadsmoor "pond" |
Saturday 21 March 2020
The view from COVID-19
Down at the Virulent Arms, the viruses are gathered for Saturday
evening drinks when in walks COVID-19. There’s a sudden hush, broken only by a
sarcastic cough from the Chief Virus.
“What have you been doing lately young virus?” She asks,
“Quite a lot!” says COVID-19, “I started in China, moved on
to Italy, tomorrow, the World! I’m having a great time spreading everywhere!”
“I hear you’ve been killing a lot of humans?”
COVID-19 looked a little embarrassed. “Well, yes, I know
that’s not a good idea because I don’t spread from a dead body but despite that, I’m spreading really fast so
it doesn’t matter!
The Chief Virus sighed. “Changing the subject completely,
have you seen your Uncle Smallpox lately?”
“No, I heard he’d got stuck in a vault somewhere and isn’t
in the wild anymore?”
“And why did the humans do that to him?”
“Well, he killed a lot of them and some bloke called Jenner
invented vaccination and they ganged up and … Oh dear!”
“Exactly you silly little chump!” shouted the Chief Virus, “Now
put down that drink and go out and mutate into something harmless before those
pesky humans get so annoyed they come after all of us with some super-duper
generic anti-viral!“
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