Injured homeless woman on  wheelchai r crying for support.

The current pandemic has exacerbated the misery of people living in poverty. It has also exposed the fragility of the social protection systems in many communities.  Multitudes of disadvantaged poor people and marginalised homeless people are facing a difficult and uncertain future. As a humanitarian organisation, we are receiving unprecedented requests for assistance. We can see the suffering and can feel the urgency.

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The crisis has had a devastating impact on the communities where we work both at home and abroad. According to research by UNICEF and Save the Children, since the pandemic, there has been a 15% spike in the global child poverty rate, with 1.2 billion children now living in multidimensional poverty. Another report suggests that the Covid-19 situation has plunged about 700,000 people into poverty in the UK.

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Bread lines are increasing, food banks are experiencing unprecedented surges in demand.  We are seeing more suffering on our streets. In February, we were all shocked by the haunting pictures of hundreds of homeless people queuing in the bitterly cold snow for a free meal at a soup kitchen in Scotland! Two weeks ago, one visitor to our soup kitchen told me he was finding it difficult to remain on his feet due to hunger. It was heartbreaking seeing him sitting dejectedly by the streets complaining he had no strength to move on. Last Saturday, on my way to the service point to commence the distribution of free food, another one cried out that he was starving!

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We are being inundated with calls for support from various places including, North, East and West Africa. Here in England, many homeless people currently being accommodated in temporary hotel facilities are still depending on street kitchens like ours for food! According to research by the Museum of Homelessness, there has been a steep rise in the number of homeless deaths with almost 1000 dying across the UK in 2020. This represents an increase of more than a third in one year, and suicide accounted for 15%.

This ugly state of affairs is disturbing. These are living, breathing, human beings. No one should be going to bed on an empty stomach; nobody should be forced to live on the streets like wild animals. We are not going to sit back simply hoping the problem would go away.

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We realise we should be doing more to help out within the communities where we operate. Fundamental rights to food, clean water, housing, health, and an adequate standard of living are all guaranteed in international law.  Going forward, we intend to ramp up our activities so as to make these rights a reality in the lives of the thousands of homeless people on the streets and the many destitute who need support.

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We need all the help we can get to make this happen. You are invited to join us on this journey. Please, support us by donating to our cause.