Poverty is also in the UK a Problem. Cuts in the British social welfare system to ensure that more and more people are dependent on billboards, which are operated by churches or mosques. A Visit To.
For Tony Platt and his wife, Emma, and the cats and
From the outside the apartment of the Platts in Semthwick, a small town near Birmingham in the Midlands of the UK, like any other. Blank gewienerte window and a well-kept front yard. But when Tony opens the flat door, dominated in the hallway the smell ungeputzter litter boxes. In the dimly lit living room there are two beds, a table and a half dozen cats.
Tony is Imran Hameed, the founder of the Salma Food Bank, 4,20 pounds (the equivalent of € 4.70). It is the bus fare, which had borrowed Hameed him at the beginning of the week, when he brought him food in the past.
“My father was a desert rat (Anm. d. Red.: The members of the British 7 were called. Panzer division in the Second world war in North Africa fought against the Germans). He has taught me what it means to be loyalty. In the war, he was from Alexandria to Tobruk in use, everywhere,” says Tony. He is early 50s and has worked as a landscape gardener, until he suffered last year from a heart attack.
Tony Platt (right) and his wife are dependent on the support of Imran Hameed and his Salma Food Bank
Tony acts like a Gentleman in old clothes. He comes off a little disheveled and unassuming, but he has to tell a wealth of stories and a dry sense of Humor. When he got his heart attack, he had no own savings; so he was dependent on Universal Credit, a complicated social welfare system by the Tory government, in which it is hard to navigate, and with the Tony in the last week of the month, regularly run out of money.
Apart from the 190 pounds (about 212 Euro), and the Platts monthly by the Department of social welfare, there are virtually no income. “The money is in the twinkling of an eye, we have to go shopping,” says Tony.
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Once poor, always poor?
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Once poor, always poor? (13.08.2018)
“You know, I come from the North, from Rochdale. And they say: If you don’t have something, you have to just live without them.” That is why Tony went often hungry to bed, before he met the Salma Food Bank. “This is what counts for me,” he says, and points to his wife and the cats.
His wife, Emma, 51, worked full-time as a Nurse, until the Stress took its toll and she became disabled. The list of your diseases in recent years is long: epilepsy, Diabetes, high blood pressure. You have to rely on strong medication. “If you have nothing to eat, can be Diabetes, life-threatening,” she says.
Just one example of many
Founded since Imran Hameed, three years ago, in honor of his mother, the Salma Food Bank, a kind of plate in the West Midlands, is amazed he is, how much hidden poverty there is in the UK. “In poverty, I always thought only in India or Pakistan. But when we started here, it was crazy completely. The poverty is here, on our doorstep.”
Imran Hameed’s mother wanted to help people who have not much – therefore he founded the Board in your honor
From April 2018 to may 2019, nearly 1.6 million emergency food parcels were distributed by the Trussell Trust, a kind of umbrella organisation in which around two-thirds of British boards are organized. Over half a Million of these parcels went to children.
Because the state social benefits are being cut for the Poorest in the United Kingdom, to 37 million pounds (41 million euros), a jump of religious welfare associations. Philip Alston, UN special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, compared the last month, the social ills in the UK today with the poor houses of Victorian time.
Social cohesion strengthened
And also Matt Adcock from the Church Urban Fund finds that poverty has become worse, but that there are also positive aspects. “The growing number of initiatives such as ‘Feeding Bradford’ shows us that churches, mosques, and social support groups work together to meet the growing demand for tablets and other help,” he says.
Above all, the Universal Credit System, in the various social services were combined to the purpose to simplify the procedure, is made for the increasing need for boards to be responsible. Gordon Brown, the former head of the Labour party, had denounced this System as “chaotic, cruel, and vindictive”, because there are millions of people in the UK, forcing it on them, previously to apply for social security benefits again.
At the end of the month, money is often left for the necessaries of Life, such as food
“The Salma Food Bank is the only panel in the West Midlands, which provides food in an emergency at home,” says Hameed. The hurdles for aid are still high. Desperate mothers fleeing domestic violence are often struggling with language problems; some have no access to the Internet or have to travel many kilometers to the nearest job centre. “For single mothers, it is even more annoying that you need a voucher,” says Hameed. 30 percent of its recipients are mothers with infants or small children.
Keep the Faith
Approximately 8000 churches operate, or currently support panels. In many areas of the UK, the groups of religious makers are the last hope for those who hit straight through. “The access to these groups is simple, quite different than the social system of the government. There, the process can be complicated,” says Ravinder Singh, the founder of the Sikh-run welfare organisation Khalsa Aid.
As Sasha Newbury* and her four small children in the town of Dudley, from her abusive husband with a knife and threatened, asked the police Hameed for help. Hameed grabbed the woman in her early 30’s, the children and their belongings in his Van and brought in one of his real estate, while the family waited for the support of the social assistance.
The Salma Food Bank has helped Sasha Newbury, and their children out of their precarious situation
“I had no food and I have fought. And I needed help,” says Newbury. Their marriage was just a year old when the first cracks showed. “I have no family, only a few friends. This was my last resort,” she says in her Four-bedroom Council flat in Handsworth.
Earlier Newbury had turned to the social help – but was refused help. Even now, in the middle of the divorce process from your ex-Partner, is not your fight is far from over. Two of their children suffer from ADHD, and cerebral palsy, a movement disorder characterized by early childhood brain damage is caused.
As Hameed loads the food packages in his Van, to supply to his next customer, he shows no signs of decreasing vigor. Inspired by the values of his mother, he wants to help his community, he says, as well as it’ll go.
*The Name has been changed to protect their identity.