Virtual Visits for Care Homes - Thank You
Over the past month we have received a fantastic response to our ‘Virtual Visits for Care Homes’ fundraising campaign and would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this (not just monetary but by sharing this fundraising effort with people they know).
Due to the pandemic, many residents have been unable to visit friends or family, and thanks to a the donations through our Just Giving page and an amazing grant from Wiltshire Community Foundation, we are in a position to try and change that.
Care Home Volunteers Chairman of Trustees, Norman Edwards, said the loss of so many lives in care homes has left many residents anxious and alone;
“Care homes are closed to all visitors, including relatives, at the moment, except for relatives at end of life. That includes our volunteers as well so they are writing greeting cards, making telephone calls and doing some video calls but we would like to have more video calls and we would like more residents to be able to call their families.
The video calls are really just contact with a face from outside to know the world is going on out there to stop them feel more secure. Video calls are quite difficult but a friendly and familiar face is quite important. We’ve all found Zoom calls to family are important and it is no less for them and perhaps even more important. It’s also important to the families who haven’t been able to see them for months.”
Local care homes have already started to receive their tablets:
“Thank you so much, we are so grateful. The residents will gain so much from this”
“We would like to send a huge thank you for the very generous loan of the two tablets which arrived this morning. We’re really looking forward to getting these set up and out into the homes where we fully intend to put them to good use. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on how this is going and we hope to be able to welcome your amazing team of volunteers very soon.”
If you would like to make a donation, please visit JustGiving.com - VirtualVisitsForCareHomes
Wiltshire Community Foundation
Thank you yo Wiltshire Community Foundation for a grant from the Coronavirus Response Fund.
WCF’s aim’s was to help as many local groups and organisations as possible and thanks to the generosity of the public, the fund has raised more than £660,000 and you can donate to it here - localgiving.org/appeal/coronavirus-response-fund. So far WCF have given out more than £425,000 to 119 worthy causes.
Fiona Oliver, interim co-chief executive of the community foundation, said:
“So many of the groups we’ve funded have adapted their services to respond to the needs of the people who rely on them and we are delighted to support wonderful causes like Care Home Volunteers who are working hard to make life better for elderly people at such an awful time.
We are so grateful for the donations we’ve had from the people of Wiltshire to the fund and we really need them because the applications are still coming in thick and fast.”
