Poverty and Homelessness Action Week 2010

Homelessness is a chronic problem in the UK and Ireland.  In these hard economic times, it’s inevitable that the problem will get worse.  Mothers’ Union members work hard in outreach projects within the UK and Ireland to alleviate the many hardships associated with homelessness.  We support the goals of Poverty and Homelessness Action Week, which will run from January 30th to February 7th, with Sunday January 31st designated as Homelessness Sunday in churches and Christian organisations around the country.

In Bristol Diocese, for example, members are involved in the Green Hut project to provide food and clothing for homeless people in Swindon; in Coventry, members distribute toiletries at the Leamington Young Homeless Project, In Devon members knit blankets which are distributed regularly at the cathderal service for the homeless, and Derby Mothers’ Union is helping to stock the Padley Centre for the Homeless with much-needed canned and long-life.

Mothers’ Union recognises that losing one’s home often leads to a loss of community as well.  All human contact can tend to fall away when you don’t have an address, a job, or any of the usual ways in which people identify each other.  In society’s eyes, and often, sadly, in the opinion of the homeless themselves, there’s a risk of being regarded as a non-person.  In Dublin Mothers’ Union members work with the Simon Community to provide fellowship and practical help for people living rough, often going out on the streets to meet them for a chat  and a time of  friendship.  In Durham Diocese too, members worked hard to ensure that people without a home at Christmas-time still had a place to go, and a gift waiting for them.

Having a place of your own after living rough is an exciting, but also daunting prospect.  Mothers’ Union members in Ely are sensitive to this, and provide not only food, but also household goods and furniture for young women re-housed after living in hostels.  Similar help is provided in Glasgow Diocese, where members collect household goods for the charity Starter Packs, and always slip a copy of our Simple Meals for Skint Singles, into each pack sent out.

Behind all Mothers’ Union work to help homeless people lies our belief in the preciousness and dignity of all human life, especially the need to belong and feel valued.  Our multi-media resource, The [home] Pack celebrates this need in film, work-books and group discussion topics.  It aims to open up dialogue as to the wider meaning of home in the 21st century, and to encourage everyone to believe that, as in the Parable of the Loaves and Fishes (Luke 9), there will be enough for everyone in this world if we all work together.

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